Spock, is that you?
by TFALokiwriter
Summary: Imagine losing all your friends and then, near to the end of your life, going into a alternate universe. Now imagine if you are one of those friends who sees their aged, logical Vulcan friend after appearing in the flesh from beyond the grave, somehow. Now, imagine, the whale probe comes earlier than it should and leaves neutralized starships in its wake.
1. Chapter 1

**. . . 2158. . .**

 **. . . Earth . . .**

Transporter Technician, Jeremy Speller, was in his bed fast asleep. The door to his room flew open with a smack once it hit the nearby wall. The man jerked awake and his husband, Josh Mathews, was curled up in his PJ'S. There was fog coming into the room with the vague shape of a human being in a astronaut suit from the late 20th century. The figure came forward into the room as Jeremy shook his partner trying to wake him up. The figure took out a phase pistol from it's holster.

"You will search for life in the transporter," There was a freaky, frightening voice from the figure.

"But . . . But. . . But there is no life in the transporter!" Jeremy said.

"Did I stutter, incompetent mortal?" The figure asked.

The phase pistol aimed at his partner.

"N-N-No!" Jeremy stretched himself in the way acting as a shield.

The figure lowered the weapon.

"You will search for life," The figure said. "There is life in the transporter."

"What kind of life?" Jeremy asked.

"Intelligent, living annoying human being." The figure said.

"Someone's stuck in the transporter?" Jeremy asked.

Jeremy recalled the inventor of the transporter,Emory Erickson,finally retrieving his son a few years ago after years of trying to retrieve him and only had to bury him afterwards in space.

"Theoretically," The figure said. "The transporter is connected to various realities and if enough parts of one specific pattern are gathered in the transporter, it could make a person."

"But . . . that is impossible!" Jeremy said.

"As were transporters," The figure said. "Said they could split one person into two, make clones of one person without intending, de-age people, said people can die from it and that it is unethical and impossible. You work with the transporter every day." The threatening phase pistol aimed in the direction of Jeremy who now was on his side of the bed. "If you do not spend some time on this subject then I will kill your family."

Jeremy leaned forward shaking his hands.

"I will, I will, I will!" Jeremy said.

The figure lowered the phase pistol.

"Who are you?" Jeremy asked.

The figure turned away.

"Out of the question." The figure said.

"I can't just do anything without knowing who just threatened me and my family!" Jeremy said.

The figure turned away then aimed the phase pistol.

"Nothing." The figure said.

"Nothing?" Jeremy repeated.

"Nothing is my name." The figure said.

Jeremy raised an eyebrow.

"So you don't have a name?" Jeremy asked.

"I do." The figure said.

"Then what is it?" Jeremy asked.

"Nothing. That is all I can say right now. The viewers already know who I am and it is best that Star Fleet not gets ahead of themselves. We get very familiar to each other in another two hundred years." The phase pistol aimed in the direction of Jeremy. Right at the forehead. "You will not prod any further with my name. Are we clear?"

"Crystal clear." Jeremy said.

"Good." The figure said.

The figure went out of the door where where the doors closed behind him and the room grew dark.

* * *

 **. .2270. . .**

It has been twelve years since the _Enterprise_ went into deep space under the command of twenty-five year old Captain James T. Kirk with young crew men and brave crew members. Now that decade has since passed but Kirk finds himself commanding another starship having turned down admiralcy. He commanded the USS _Saratoga_ which was a Miranda class with first officer Annabell Louise. Doctor McCoy was back on Earth enjoying his retirement, riding a horse. Commander Nyota and Captain Spock were on the same starship together, being the _Enterprise_ , at least they used to have Scotty when there was Star Fleet requested his assistance on a 'Transporter project' on New Vulcan. That was two months ago. Nyota and Spock were 'happily' married by Vulcan standards. Commander Chekov was on the same ship Commander Sulu was on, being the USS _Scottendale_ commanded by a Deltan named Vultore.

They were patrolling sector five, neutral zone.

"This is odd. . ." Lieutenant Salvador said, staring at the screen to her station.

"What is it, Mr Salvador?" Kirk asked.

"There is a flying tube with a ball sticking out," Salvador said. "Readings are all over the place."

Kirk stood up watching the shape of a unusual item headed their way.

"What the hell?" Kirk said. "Lieutenant Green, alert Star Fleet regarding this. . ." He came closer toward the screen squinting at it watching it get closer. "Probe."

They couldn't take any chances regarding it.

"Aye, captain." Green said, at his station turning away and began to send the message.

A sound entered the ship, a familiar sound to Kirk, making everyone raise their head sup with raised eyebrows.

 _"Just as I have theorized, it is a whale song, admiral."_

Kirk looked over expecting to see the source of the voice. But there was no source. Kirk turned his head away. It had sounded a lot like his Spock, but it had been a year since they last seen the other. Sometimes it was a pain in the ass to have some of the memories left from the mind meld he had with Spock Prime and then there were the moments they came in handy, like right about now. The memories were fragments, pieces,and not the whole story. He had admitted to McCoy how he was able to accomplish the missions even with the loss and sometimes there were no memories to use to save his landing parties. Which in turn made Kirk rely off his wit and brain power, and teamwork with the remaining members of his landing party. He couldn't be sure if this was a damn whale song at all!

So gibbered, beyond alien, and unrecognizable to his crew.

Suddenly the power on the bridge went out including all over the ship.

"Emergency power." Kirk ordered.

The bridge glowed to a red tone.

"Captain," Andrew Stonn came out of the turbo lift appearing to be concerned. "Why is the power down?"

"Well, Stonn, a probe just took us out," Kirk replied. "Sometimes I wish probes could speak."

"Captain," Green turned away from his station. "There are reports of the life systems and oxygen levels are not compatible for us to stay alive for a day."

Stonn looked over toward Kirk as were everyone. Idling in space made them game for anyone to attack. They were dead in the water, McCoy would say if he were here. They hadn't had any problems patrolling the neutrual zone besides to the often rebellious Romulans attempting to cross over to make their way to New Vulcan and cripple their efforts to restore their civilization, some Romulans purely left to defect The Romulan Empire, some left to seek out a name for themselves and they had to be turned back, and some just left to start anew often times in a Romulan shuttle craft manned by four people. Kirk figured the Romulan Empire had to be having a bad depression on their home planet.

And there were other times where they beamed up, needless to say, Romulan babys with the ship would depart leaving them with wailing babies The women aboard the Saratoga would volunteer to take care of them while awaiting the adoption agency. It was rare to find a Klingon baby among the numbers. Far too odd to see a Klingon/Romulan hybrid. On his first day they picked up a Klingon Baby from a Romulan Vessel then returned into the neutral zone. Five months later he came across a Klingon/Romulan hybrid with the forehead of a Klingon and pointy ears.

"How many stasis pods do we have?"

"One thousand."

Kirk pressed a button on the arm rest.

"This is your captain speaking," Kirk said. "Everyone must prepare for suspended animation. We have limited life support due to a probe. Kirk out." He turned toward the rest of the bridge crew. "We only need two people aboard the bridge. It is the annual instantaneous contact with the Enterprise. Respectfully, as your captain, you will go. Contact will begin in twenty hours. Once the contact is over, Mr Green and I will go into the pods. If anything . . . If we have the Enterprise alerted then she would come and would arrive to a oxygen deprived ship. Perhaps they too would become victims. I will not allow that. If a Klingon or a Romulan bird-of-prey comes and destroys this ship. . ." He looked around toward his crew. "It was a honor serving with you."

* * *

Spock was in the captain's chair.

"Captain," Nyota said. "We have established contact with the Saratoga."

"On screen." Spock said.

On the screen appeared a somewhat dark but glowing red bridge. Spock's arched eyebrow rose up at the sight of his old friend, seemingly, coughing into his hand.

"Captain Kirk." Spock said.

Kirk smiled lowering his hand down.

"Captain Spock," Kirk said, with a smile. "Good to see you are okay."

"Captain," Spock said. "What is wrong?"

"Oh nothing much." Kirk said.

"Captain." Spock said.

"We were attacked, and currently under red alert," Kirk said. "We kicked the Romulans back into the netrual zone," He coughed again, this time, appearing to be ill. "I am fine, Spock, just a bad cold. I am going to get it treated."

"Captain, I know you well enough to know you have been avoiding going to Med Bay for that reason primarily," Spock said. "This 'yearly live' conversation was suggested by Doctor McCoy to ensure you are not getting in 'over your head' as the doctor put it. And it seems you have exactly done 'the thing' the doctor was referring to." A fond smile grew on the older man's face. "You are being more illogical and irrational than usual which is completely unlike you to disregard medical procedures and visit the chief medical officer of the ship."

"Mr Spock," Kirk said. "If you are to do me and the federation any favors. Don't. Come. Not unless you are willing to become dead in the water. Star Fleet will become alert."

There was a un-Vulcan look of concern on the captain's face.

Oxygen deprivation, coughing was one of the symptoms.

A sign of struggling to breath.

There were a few times where they were being suffocated on missions. But not long enough for their skin to change colors. This indicated that there was not enough oxygen to last for the next four hours. Also that suffocation was occurring rather slowly. It became clearly evident seeing marks along his exposed neck and his neck had visibly blue colors starting to appear.

"You never told me where you were stationed." Spock said.

Kirk snickered.

"I don't have to," Kirk said. "You already know."

Kirk turned in the direction of someone behind him and then made the screen go black.

"Captain?" Nyota asked.

"Contact the Scottendale." Spock said.

"Aye, captain," Nyota paused. "I am only getting a automated distress signal, but no one is answering."


	2. Chapter 2

The two pods landed on New Vulcan. The pairs of doors opened up to reveal Commander Sulu and Chekov who appeared to be wildered.

"Did a astronaut and his army konvince us to get into a stasis pod and single handly take over the ship?" Chekov asked.

"That is what it looks like, Pavel." Sulu said.

Chekov looked up toward the sky to see there being three obvious moons in the sky.

"We are on New Wulcan!" Chekov said, slipping out of the pod landing face first into the dirt. "Ow."

Sulu got out of the pod then helped his husband up.

"We should get to the nearest building and report what happened." Sulu said, holding his arm out.

"I do not believe anyone will believe us." Chekov said, worried as he took the man's arm.

"We might not be the only ones," Sulu said. "You never know."

* * *

"Mister Selek-"

"Spock." Spock Prime corrected the scottsman.

The scottsman looked at the older Vulcan, the one who somewhat resembled the Vulcan who captained a starship, only very, _very,_ **very** old. He embraced his emotions in a way that was different from the Vulcans who had to embrace theirs during their grieving for their original home planet with help from a Vulcan healer named Sybok. Sybok had a fully grown beard, hell, he was older than Captain Spock was! And he was a much more likable Vulcan who acted strangely human. He could have fooled everyone that he was a Vulcan/Human hybrid much like his brother.

"Mister Spock, the transporter is ready," Scotty said. "Miss Speller is nae turnin' it on until you are in there with us. I am nae goin' without a Vulcan with experiences in transporter malfunctions!"

"Mr Scott, I understand you are still struggling to live with the fact that I am older than you, but . . ." Spock Prime said. "You always won the drinking game with Captain Kirk."

"Aye, it seems he always lost the game even in your timeline, tae!" Scotty said.

The two exited the room. Spock, for a Vulcan Hybrid, was aging gracefully. He had watched history proceed almost but alike to his universe. He met a young Vulcan by the name of Tuvok, a boy in his twenties, seeking the stars and a curiosity for what lay ahead of them. He claimed not to be interested in joining Star Fleet (though Spock knew his parents wanted him to join so Captain Spock wasn't the only Vulcan in Star Fleet). Spock Prime would admit to Tuvok's parents that he saw a bright future for him in Star Fleet. A Vulcan who would befriend a human, much like Spock Prime did, serve her well, and come back. Tuvok, the one he knew, became a admiral shortly after returning to Earth. Tuvok had wished Spock Prime 'G _ood luck_ ' with his mission prior to his departure to save Romulus instead of the Vulcan departure phrase ' _Live long and prosper_ '. If anything, in his prime timeline, there is bound to be a New Romulus and a New Remus formed by the Romulans months after the massive loss.

"At many times the doctor and I had to bring the captain to his quarters," Spock Orime said. "Well into his mid-life crisis was he that way."

"Ah, that must have been bad." Scotty said.

"Fortunately he turned around after Khan." Spock Prime said.

"Khan. . . That lad." Scotty said.

"The original Khan brought the captain back to his senses," Spock Prime said. "In a way, Khan was just what he needed. But he was sad and depressed while I was gone, moping around, and I understand how it pained the dead to see their beloved ones like that." Scotty stopped staring in the direction of Spock Prime. Spock Prime looked over in the direction of the scottsman. "Everything happened differently. Too differently."

"You. . . died?" Scotty asked, with a raised eyebrow.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"What was it like?" Scotty said.

"It is difficult to talk something that has not been experienced by someone who has experience it." Spock said.

"So I have to die before you talk about it." Scotty said.

"And then come back to life, affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"You should have talked to the captain . . ." Scotty said.

"Technically, he never really did die," Spock Prme said. "He still had neurons remaining in his brain."

"So?" Scotty asked, coming to the side of the Vulcan. "That does nae excuse talkin' with someone who has gone through what you went through!"

"That is logical, Mr Scott." Spock Prime said.

"Did you ever call the other me just 'Scotty'?" Scotty asked.

"Negative." Spock Prime said.

Scotty grinned as they walked into the building.

"I guess that never changes with the Spocks," Scotty said. "And what about the doctor?"

"More closer than my counterpart is with Doctor McCoy." Spock Prime said.

Our view pans over to Hannah Speller, a woman working with her Vulcan friend Staurk, on the machine making sure it was all hooked up. She looked over to see the old, gray Vulcan with his much younger companion beside him sharing stories. The Vulcan had a raised gray elevated eyebrow at the scottsman story and Scotty went right along finishing it with how Freenser's duplicate vanished without a trace into the transporter after doing something to the transporter console. Staurk put on a pair of googles (despite having a secondary inner eyelid, he still valued his eyes unlike how most Vulcans would stare into the light unaffected. Some would say he went insane after the loss of his mate in the fall of Vulcan. But he claims to have always been this way) that made him look goofy. Spock Prime raised an eyebrow at Staurk even further then he lowered it.

"Mister Sa-Mister Spock,I meant!" Speller poked her head from behind the machine that had the shape of a circular pod with set on its circular bottom ending connected to various tubes and wires. She had a lot of freckles and wild red hair, her face was covered in the waste from working on a machine for so long. "Glad you could be here." She came over to the transporter console that had been divided into three parts. "I am so glad you decided to be part of history."

"It is logical regarding the subject," Spock Prime said. "And having a friend unsure whether it will work." He looked over toward the shorter man who seemed to be admiring him, in a way that would be defined as 'a huge fangirl', then turned his head back to the woman. "I understand your entire family has been working on this project for two generations. I am curious, however, as to what sparked a highly illogical project."

"You would not believe it." Speller said.

"I have heard more 'illogical' scenarios. Do tell." Spock said.

"A man in a astronaut suit called Nothing popped up in my great-grandfather's room and threatened his family," Speller said. "He popped up a second time,same suit, three years later in a air-car that my great-grandfather was in and informed my great-grandfather's spouse that his existence was limited aiming a phase pistol right at his face and the windows were cloudy. He had implied there was someone in the transporter by saying a pattern could be gathered from numerous visits and enough of these visits could leave a copy, a duplicate, a complete carbon copy of the person still alive complete with free will and their own soul." Stuark and Scotty went to their respective parts of the console. "So even if the original died, their soul would still be in the copy. We have done research and countless research to check if this is true. Great-grand father Jeremy found one life form before I was even born. Just a flicker and he was sent down the road of insanity. It depends who you ask. He was very sane around his colleagues and family members. When I met my great grandfather he was working with a home made transporter. Everyone thought he was mad. But he was the best great-grandfather I ever had. In the summer time when he wasn't working on the project he would be spending every minute of the day with me giving the best summer ever." Speller smiled. "One day. . ." Her smile faded. "I saw what he was doing. I saw a man on the transporter pad when he was attempting to beam someone out where no one dared to try. Then it failed. And the man vanished. He tried five more times. The last failed leaving only a lifeless mass. My great-grandfather threw a fit, destroyed everything, and stormed out."

"And you picked up the pieces." Spock Prime said.

Speller smiled.

"I picked up where he left off, and it took me years to fix this old girl." She looked over to the Vulcan who had his face down at the touch screen setting up the coordinates that they were aiming for. "And Staurk here is the one who insisted to bring my experiment here."

"It was very logical, no thank you." Stuark said.

"And where are you beaming this 'person' out?" Spock Prime asked.

Speller smiled.

"Out of the transporter pattern zone." Speller said.

Scotty locked on the life sign radiating on the touchable screen. Stuark worked with the transporter bind settings clutching onto the pattern that was steaming with life making the console begin to make uncomfortable noises. Scotty could feel the console under his fingertips become heated. The lights in the console were turning off and on alarming the scottsman. Speller slid forward a bar on the screen. Their attention shifted to the transporter that was trembling, making sounds that sounded like something dangerous was going on, and there were golden bands appearing taking on a human shape. A tinge of blue, black, and white appeared. Spock stepped forward toward the the transporter watching the head come into focus among the golden glowing energy bands.

There was a explosion from the console sending the three people back cowering in pain, at first, except for Staurk. The golden flash appeared right as Spock Prime appeared in the threshold merely five feet away from the transporter pad. There was a stunned look on the man's face, his brown graying hair was exactly the way it was when Spock Prime had seen McCoy Prime in 2293, his light blue eyes widened, and there was a look of shock but recognition on his face at the same time. However, his uniform was a light blue instead of the normal red for the Star Fleet military themed uniform. It suited the doctor because his profession was healing. Which was completely logical. Spock could feel a inner delight at seeing his old friend standing in the flesh. Joy, even. His darkened world brightened up.

"Spock, is that you?" Came the familiar, younger, but otherwise alive Georgian voice from the man.

The Vulcan stepped forward.

"Leonard," Spock Prime said. "You last complained to me that Star Fleet was getting arrogant in medicine with cloning spare body parts before I left your house in 2370 after informing you that Jim died. . ." He came closer to the human male. "It has been seventeen years since you died. You died in Georgia with your family around you,I left because of my mission to unify Romulus and Vulcans was very important and you told me to go and not witness you die. You claimed, 'Spock, you have enough heartbreak for today' even though I had no objections."

McCoy Prime raised an eyebrow.

"You failed?" McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime shook his hand.

"I failed to save Romulus," Spock Prime said. "Nice guess, Leonard . . . ." Spock Prime lowered his hand. "But logically, the departure of Romulus has likely unified Vulcans and Romulans, exactly what I wanted."

"You weren't this old last time I saw you. You still had raven black hair! Your father still had raven hair when he was two hundred!"

A un-Vulcan smile appeared on Spock's face.

"One hundred sixty-nine." Spock said.

"And you outlived me!" McCoy said. "I told you so!"

"That I would outlive you?" Spock Prime said. "That was simply the truth. You were one hundred forty-three. Easily could have surpassed me-"

"Don't get on that body part replacement train-" McCoy Prime started to say but was cut off.

"If you had gone with the option your family wanted," Spock Prime finished. "And I was not intending to mention cloning body parts. Why were you thinking I was about to mention that?" Spock Prime raised an arched eyebrow. "That is illogical knowing you the doctor who prefers to have his own body parts and fighting against death on your own accord." The three people got up right with groans. "Speaking of which . . . Leonard, how do you feel?"

". . . I feel. . . . not so old." McCoy Prime looked down toward his hands and his jaw dropped. He felt along the side of his face feeling the lack of numerous wrinkles that had gone away. He was back in his sixties all over again not in his mid late hundred forties. McCoy Prime looked back up toward the Vulcan lifting his jaw back up.

"You have been regenerated," Spock Prime said. "And there is something you must know. We are in a Alternate Universe. The year is 2270."

"The year we lost Decker and LLyia." McCoy Prime said.

"This time, Star Fleet did not," Spock Prime said. "Captain Kirk is the captain of the _Saratoga._ Captain Spock is on the _Enterprise_ with Commander Uhura, Christine Chapel is on the _Enterprise_ , Chekov and Sulu are married currently on _Scottendale_. "

"Hey, who the hell is he?" Scotty asked.

McCoy froze seeing the familiar face staring back at him then he looked over toward Spock.

"Do you mean to say we are in the damn past?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Stuck." Spock Prime asked.

"And Scotty is alive." McCoy Prime said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"Jim is alive. . ." McCoy Prime said. "For now."

"Leonard," Spock Prime said. "I am assured the fate of this Kirk won't be the sam-"

"HE CAN BECOME A DAMN ADMIRAL AND GET HIMSELF KILLED! He has another twenty-three years on this plane and someone has to make sure that history does not repeat itself here! The other me should not and will not lose him. There are thin's that I hadn't told Jim before he went on the tour," McCoy Prime briefly closed his eyes. "I never should have decided against goin' on the _Enterprise B_."

"Leonard, he was outside our own time. And his fate is constantly changing. There will not be a _Enterprise A_ or _Enterprise B_ in this short of time." McCoy Prime took his friend by the shoulders with a look of shock on his face, just to be sure. "I am very sure about this Leonard. No Khan. No V'Ger. I am sure there is no whale probe headed on the way to Earth."

"Spock, you can't be sure about that." McCoy Prime said, letting go of the Vulcan's shoulders.

"I am ninety-nine point nine percent right." Spock Prime said.

"Who the hell are you?" Scotty asked.

"Leonard H McCoy," McCoy said. "Captain to you."

Scotty fainted with a thud.

Speller and Staurk were standing up staring in the direction of McCoy Prime, Staurk had his googles over the top of his head.

"I have been waiting over one hundred years to say that," McCoy Prime noticed his uniform. "Well, at least the uniform is the right color. This time!"


	3. Chapter 3

"So. . . What about Tuvok?"

"He is alive."

"And Saavik?"

"Alive and well."

". . . Peter?"

"Alive."

McCoy Prime had changed his attire. It turned out the attire was similar to the 20th century just with a updated design, and there was a clothes replicator. McCoy Prime pitied the Vulcan race. He was going to straight back to Earth which he learned would be roughly two hours and thirty-three minutes according to Spock Prime. McCoy Prime had a good idea where his counterpart could be. Something he would be doing when he was the man's age. McCoy was forty-three years old in this timeline.

"What do you mean that we cannot leave?" There were some pissed off humans visiting Vulcans friends returning home.

"I have a anniversery to attend!" A fifty-three man with a graying beard shouted.

"Earth's oceans are currently being vaporized." Came the Vulcan that spoke over them, monotonously, and without anger.

McCoy Prime froze as did Spock Prime.

The two shared a 'what-the-hell' expression then turned their heads back in the direction of the crowd with two words lingering in their minds: _the probe_.

* * *

"Dad, I am scared." Joanna said.

McCoy looked out the window watching the ravaging weather outside. Earth had a red alert occurring all over and he had the luck to find out when people were leaving the plain grassy field where horses were riden. Riding horses with his daughter, having the time of his life,and his days wasn't full of chaos. Saving people was what he did and he was taking a break from that. Well, a permanent vacation. If he continued going on insane and mad missions it would have killed him eventually! Then his daughter wouldn't have a father to babysit her children, walk her down the aisle, and be a grandparent. Then he looked over toward his daughter.

"Don't be," McCoy said. "At least this horse back ridin' trip did not go down to nothin'."

The glass shattered sending in wind and pieces of the outside nature. McCoy stepped back out of the direction of the wind. They were staying at Joanna's place in Georgia.

The power in the flashing red building turned off and there was pitch black.

"To the basement!" McCoy said.

"Good thinking, dad." Joanna said.

"Every house needs a basement." McCoy said.

The building rattled from side to side making a odd creaking sound that sent chills down McCoy's backside. He went with his daughter into the basement closing the door behind him. The door to the house fell through sending in debris making several of the belongings inside fall over landing on the floor if not breaking into piece. McCoy was bound to return back into space. Even when he retired, McCoy still found himself helping others. A whole year had passed without hypoing Kirk or anyone from the _Enterprise_ for that matter.

"Dad." Joanna said.

"Yes?" McCoy said.

"Tell me one of those stories you had when being a CMO on the _Enterprise_." Joanna said.

McCoy paused, listening to the rattling of the building while contemplating which one of their missions to tell to pass the time.

"We met up with Trelane, squire of Gothos, retired general more than once," McCoy said. "His second visit was rather unexpected. We had just finished off a mission. . . ."

* * *

McCoy Prime recognized the sight of two dismayed men, but namely the face of the one with dark hair. Hikaru Sulu. It had been a few decades since he last seen the man who adored plants and loved the _Excelsior_. Sulu Prime died in 2366. _"A ship's a ship."_ , Scotty Prime had said when on the way to their new starship assignment. McCoy Prime back then had hoped for a _Freighter_. A starship that resembled a long shovel built for a mining colony. There was a man alongside the Sulu look-alike with curly light brown hair turned in the direction of Sulu appearing to be shocked. McCoy Prime recognized the younger man as Pavel Chekov. The two old friends felt the ground tremble beneath their feet, the sound of a starship crashing drew their attention as it did for everyone else, and they both knew what had crash landed. It was perfectly logical and not surprising for the two older men.

They went first before the humans had turned into a tidal wave and carried them out. Spock Prime and McCoy Prime came to a stop watching the back end of the Romulan Bird-Of-Prey open by the back end and several Romulans fell right out coughing landing their brown hands (and a few of them had Caucasian skin) on the red dirt. New Vulcan had three moons unlike the original home planet. Vulcan had a sister planet in Spock Prime's reality but there wasn't a sister planet co-orbiting Vulcan this time around. Spock Prime quickly identified the captain of the Romulan Bird of Prey due to the attire and the pips.

"Spock, you are not thinkin' what I think you are thinkin'." McCoy Prime said.

"Earth will be destroyed if we do not act," Spock Prime said. "By the time the _Enterprise_ arrives. . ." We can see the _Enterprise_ coming across the _Scottendale_ freely floating in space on its side. "Earth will have been destroyed. Despite what the captain would do to ensure his friends do not die because of limited life support. The crew of the Saratoga in the original timeline only survived because they went into suspended animation. The _Enterprise_ will have suffered a loss far greater that would affect my younger self. Losing two planets at once? I believe he would indulge himself into chocolate and become unresponsive to those around him, especially his mate."

"You wouldn't do that if that happened in our timeline." McCoy Prime said.

"I would not. Logically, Vulcan would have been spared. But since he lost Vulcan. . . Earth is as home to him as the _Enterprise_ is to Scotty," Spock Prime replied."Leonard, the most shocking part of this timeline is the fact that Lieutenant Uhura and my younger part got together." A smile grew on the Georgian's face. "I do not understand how it became possible."

McCoy Prime had a soft laugh.

"Spock, Uhura was hittin' on you the first year on the five year nission." McCoy Prime said.

"Such as the attempted flirt at Vulcan's nonexistent moons?" Spock Prime raised an eyebrow.

"I gave Uhura flirtin' advice." McCoy Prime said, with a nod.

Spock Prime lowered his eyebrow.

"Your advice was insufficient." Spock Prime said.

"This time around, she probably succeeded without my advice," McCoy Prime said. "I knew the original Uhura would fail."

"How?" Spock Prime inquired.

"I just knew you weren't for Uhura like Chapel was fantasyin' over you," McCoy Prime put an arm in the way of Sulu. Spock Prime raised an gray arched eyebrow. McCoy Prime turned in the direction of Sulu. "Hold your horses, Mister Sulu!"

There was a slight scream from Chekov pointing at McCoy Prime covering his mouth and widened with fearful eyes. Sulu's eyes flickered in recognition as he gasped momentarily laced with confusion and shock. Hearing his last name come from someone who he had not been aware of prior was shocking, and, puzzling. Spock Prime had lowered his gray eyebrow.

"All of you, stop!" McCoy Prime stood in their way holding one hand up. "By orders of Star Fleet you are supposed to sit tight and remain calm, let the damn Vulcan authorities handle this!" The line had come to a stop staring at the man. "Now,that is much better." He folded his arms. "All of you should take the opportunity to get massages because YES, Vulcans are perfectly capable of relievin' your stress. I recommend you make the best of this situation by havin' some good old fashioned games and fun with what you have right here." McCoy Prime unfolded his arms then pointed at the sky at the distant planet. "Earth can wait for you. Earth so happens to be in need of some-one to get two whales and dump them in the ocean." He pointed down. "So if anyone wants to die in space because of a alien probe neutrualizin' every ship, starbase, and shuttle craft out there and SUFFOCATE then go right ahead!"

"Pardon me," Came a Boston accented man. "But if you are correct, then why is there a non-Vulcan form of authority speaking with the Romulan captain?"

McCoy Prime sighed.

"He is a _Ambassador_ ," McCoy Prime said. "Now all of you turn around and go to the nearby pool beside the historical museum."

"There is a pool?" Came a child's voice.

"Oh yes, there is!" Came another child.

"Pool party!" The voice of a older man came.

"The body of water is exactly the size of a giant lake," A female Vulcan said. "So, it is illogical to refer to it as a pool."

"Enjoy yourselves!" McCoy Prime said, beckoning them back from the Romulan starship as the crowd headed in the opposite direction.

The Romulan captain scowled at Spock.

"I will not let you commandeer my ship nor will I allow my crew to help you get where you need," The Romulan captain said. "You might as well kill us afterwards and hands us over to Star Fleet!"

"Unfortunately," Spock Prime said. "Even without your consent to join us, we will be on the ship."

"That is my ship." The Romulan captain said, glaring down at the Vulcan

"And does it have a name by any chance?" Spock Prime asked.

"The Bounty!" The Romulan captain said.

McCoy Prime had stopped, in his tracks, hearing that name. He had personally given the name of the original Klingon starship due to its historical irony. McCoy Prime had helped in the painting along with a few Vulcans and Scotty Prime. Scotty Prime just wanted something to do, apparently, but it was fun painting the letters. He could not believe Romulans had purposely named a starship The Bounty without being aware of its historical significance to humanity.

The mere name brought McCoy Prime back into the three month exile on Vulcan with his friends alive and well. McCoy Prime's overall concern for Spock Prime's memories returning, Uhura Prime and Amanda Prime exchanging stories of Spock Prime, Sulu Prime speaking with a Vulcan interested in Botany, Chekov Prime using Malth Prime the Klingon to understand the navigator console (after preventing the Klingon from committing suicide and single handedly convinced him to join the federation on the promise he would get his honor back which was the most acceptable exchange to Jim.), then Malth Prime leaving Vulcan on the third month to Earth to iron out a deal. Surrendering to Star Fleet was dishonorable and humiliating to the Klingon but being captured by Jim and his crew and not being killed more dishonorable then turning himself in. It was thanks to Malth Prime that Star Fleet cracked the code to Klingonese.

"That is very convenient of you," Spock Prime said. "History is deliberately arranging itself . . . Too neatly."

"My crew will not allow you." The Romulan captain said.

Spock Prime looked over toward the crew.

"Raise your hands if you would rather be on planet then attempt a fated deadly return to your planet."

The thirteen crew members raised their hands up.

"They have now," Spock Prime said. "And you will not do anything to destroy what could be your future."

"Oh, why?" The Romulan captain asked.

"Because I save your planet. Or will to be precise. Your hero will not make it to Romulus's rogue sun in 2387 and the results, I assure you, will be more deadly than it was in my timeline. I am a time traveler. A reality shifter, if you prefer to refer to me as that. I am Ambassador Spock. Your planet is dead because of miscalculations and mistakes. Currently it is if you proceed to shoot me with your disruptor," The Romulan captain had one hand on the disruptor handle. The Romulan's hand froze in place. "Romulus will be left vulnerable to the Klingons and it will fall once Star Fleet is out of the equation." McCoy Prime appeared behind the Romulan captain. "Now tell me if that is in your paranoid mind any at least . . . logical."

"I rather take my chances, imposter-" The Romulan captain collapsed after a nerve pinch applied McCoy Prime.

Spock Prime raised an eyebrow.

"I was unaware your arthritis condition does not exist in this body." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime had one of his good smiles, ones that Spock Prime had missed seeing.

"Perfectly healthy." McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime looked over toward the first Romulan Officer with a lowered eyebrow.

"Everything started malfunctioning and we crashed," The Romulan first officer said. "We were going to loot the _Scottendale_."

"No one loots any ship I am assigned to." Sulu's voice drew their attention.

"And it was idyling," The Romulan first officer said. "No one was answering our hails. Not even a soul . . . So Terran, mind you explain why it was up for grabs?"

"Soon as you explain why you went past the neutral zone." Sulu said.

"All occupants on the Saratoga are dead," The Romulan first officer said. "We destroyed it for good measure after we came across it."

"I find it hard to believe you would attack without reason. Romulans may be paranoid but not that paranoid, so, logically the Saratoga is still adrift in space." McCoy Prime prevented the two men from going after the Romulan first officer. "You are a very bad liar."

"The captain was James T. Kirk. He had warned us not to go or face what the Klingons faced. We found a few Klingon vessels adrift on our way here, and we killed them too," Spock Prime had a emotionless but a rather skeptical expression on his face. "We could conquer the entire universe if we pleased!"

"Actually, you would have failed." Spock Prime said.

"And before we cut transmission, the captain plead with us to not go into Federation Space any further, just as he had plead before. Even while he was on his last breath," The Romulan first officer said. "We took pity upon him and destroyed the ship. No human being should die being suffocated on a adrift starship. We did the most humane action possible."

"You are lying to me." Spock Prime said.

"I am not." The Romulan first officer said.

Spock Prime glared over (That is what it felt like to the Romulans) to the second officer.

"Do you have stasis cuffs?" Spock Prime asked.

"Yes." The Romulan second officer said

"Retrieve stasis cuffs and have everyone outside," Spock Prime looked over toward the two younger men kept back by McCoy Prime. "Mr Sulu, Mr Chekov, I believe we can be of use to one another."

"What kind of use?" Chekov asked.

"Saving Star Fleet." Spock Prime said.

"How can you be so sure this Romulan is lying?" Sulu asked, as the Romulan came back out of the starship holding thirteen stasis cuffs in her hands.

"They shrug one point two seconds per lie," Spock Prime said. "When they are telling the truth there is no visible shrugs."

McCoy Prime looked back at the memories.

"Wait, does this mean Jim sold the glasses?" McCoy Prime said

"Jim sold them in 1986 for one hundred dollars, then you gave them to him, and then he sold it again." Spock Prime explained.

"A closed time loop, how pretty." McCoy Prime said, sarcastically.

"After we returned to Earth I bought Jim a new pair of glasses so he can read." Spock Prime said.

"You are a sneaky fox, Spock." McCoy Prime said.

"None of it was sneaky. I could not find a eighteenth century pair of glasses but there was a nineteenth century pair but less expensive." Spock Prime said.

"I know what I am getting the captain for his birthday." Sulu said, with a smile growing on his face.

"Have you two flown a Romulan starship?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Once," Chekov said. "We had to retrieve the captain and the commander from a Klingon base."

Spock Prime raised an eyebrow.

"How convenient." McCoy Prime said.

"It was five years ago." Chekov said.


	4. Chapter 4

"Geeze, Romulans haven't changed the language from Klingon." Chekov said.

"Battle levels are a piece of cake but flying is another problem. Pavel, why are you installing Star Fleet library?" Sulu asked.

"I rather go to our funeral on a starship with federation ties." Chekov said

"That is comforting to hear." Sulu said.

"Seeing the doctor, older, different, and not like ours but strikingly similar. . ." Chekov said. "It got me thinking. Will we see him get to that age? Hair turn gray? His face getting wrinkles with every passing year? A softened, yet still grumpy doctor who loves to hypo us?" Chekov leaned over in the direction of Sulu. "And a well, more emotional Mister Spock? More human than he had shown on the countless missions he went on with the captain?"

"I believe by our influence he has become more human," Sulu said. "In both universes."

"Is it me or did Mister Spock and Doctor McCoy totally ransack the food packs and replace them all with vegetables in less than thirty-two minutes?" Scotty asked, coming into the bridge holding a package in one hand that was partially open.

Speller was at the communications station with a screw like device in her ear listening into the incoming signals being exchanged. Most of them were distress signals. Her face faltered at the one of the hailing while the conversation went on between the three men. They were bouncing ideas off one another why they could possibly do that since they never had a taste of Romulan and Klingon food. In among the distress signals were coming from Earth requesting that all remaining vessels turned away. Speller had been a communications officer, Lieutenant, prior to divulging herself completely into transporter technician experimentation.

"Miss Speller?" Came Spock Prime startling her.

Speller looked up toward Spock and it became apparent that she had been this way for more then ten minutes. She only knew that because the view screen displayed New Vulcan from orbit and there were two distant starships. One could not determine what was across from the blip in the scenery except that it were gray just like the item beside it except for the size of it was smaller. They were too far away to make a actual determination since it was approximately eight hours away from New Vulcan.

"All Star Fleet vessels are down," Speller sounded afraid. "Including the _Enterprise_. It has been on a repeat distress call."

McCoy Prime looked over toward Spock Prime.

"I take it Sarek's living counterpart is on Earth with Perrin?" McCoy Prime asked.

"' _Summer vacation._ ' Sarek said," Spock Prime quoted. "My father never took summer vacation. Sarek is more versed in humanity than the one I knew."

* * *

Sarek's air-car had crash landed somewhere but not in the vaporizing ocean.

In his minds eye, Sarek felt himself enter Star Fleet command requesting to know what kind of 'illogical' natural disaster is going on. Earth was equipped with machines that organized the weather and kept it in check. No humans did tamper with these under any circumstance. They were used to make the seasons occur properly without being erratic and life threatening. The fleet admiral, a black man, Cartwright was in the room with President John Connor. The windows were being sealed to prevent them from being broken by flying debris.

"Ambassador," Connor said, straightening himself up appearing to be surprised, genuinely surprised. "I was not aware you were paying a visit to Earth."

"My wife wanted to pay a visit," Sarek said. "It seems we may not get what we want. Now, I would like my question to be answered. This is highly troubling and illogical."

"A alien probe is burning the ocean and ravaging the entire planet," Connor said. "All power has been lost. We were only able to issue a red alert for the planet." He lowered his head. "It seems today is humanity's last day." The president had a sad sigh. "And it looks like humanity will be on the same boat Vulcans are in. I am sorry, Ambassador."

"That is unfortunate," Sarek remarked. "But there is a possibility that other starships will attempt to help."

"So far those ships have been neutralized. . . And we can't seem to answer this probe." Cartwright remarked.

"One cannot answer easily if you don't understand the question," Sarek said. "I believe it is logical to send a planetary message to all unaffected vessels that have not been the victim . . . to spare those of what fate rests for those still under the probes signal."

"That is not a bad idea." Connor said, looking up only to see Sarek had vanished.

"Where the hell did that damn Vulcan go?" Cartwright asked.

Sarek's eyes opened to hear the whistling of the outside powerful forces. There was a crack in the window above him and he could feel a sharp pain in his skull. Sarek could see the sky was a dark shade of gray. He could see Perrin's blonde hair rested on her shoulders and her eyes were closed. Sarek stretched his hand out placing a finger along her neck to feel for a pulse. There was a faint pulse. She needed a doctor to attend for the injuries about her face and where-ever where they could be that his eyes could not see.

Sarek closed his eyes feeling himself slipping into a healing trance.

"Help . . ." Sarek muttered, feeling around for a button to open the doors. It was partially dark and the consoles were coated in darkness not glowing as they should be. He smacked his fist on the console making a inwards shaped dent being the side of his fist. He could hear the cackle of electricity that brighten up the view screen briefly displaying there was little power without solar energy to make it fly out of the situation.

Sarek briefly closed his eyes.

"Sarek . . ." Sarek could hear Amanda's voice, alive, and healthy.

No, but she was dead.

This is illogical.

"Stay awake," Amanda's voice insisted. "My husband, stay."

Sarek opened his eyes to see a bright light feeling what was like a hand pressing alongside his cheek. He could see among the white light the shape of a woman with brown hair looking toward him with a look of understanding and kindness, perhaps even love. There was only one logical explanation to this episode for the Ambassador. Quite simply he was on a thin string between life and death. Amanda's ghostly hand fell off his cheek. Sarek could feel emotional at seeing Amanda once again. She looked exactly the way he had met her all those years ago.

"Amanda. . ." Sarek said. "I miss your presence."

Amanda smiled down toward him.

"Your presence is needed here,my husband," Amanda said. "And Perrin's time is not now. Nor is yours."

"My time is limited. There is no logical way for Earth to be saved." Sarek said.

Sarek briefly closed his eyes then reopened them to see Amanda, alive, and well, holding out her two fingers put together.

"I have, and always shall, love you . . ." Amanda said. "My Sarek. There is hope for Earth."

Sarek still moving fingers met the love of his wife where he could a spark of love and affection with other power that was beyond his understanding. She was energy, moving, living, energy. Sarek could sense the spirit of his previous wife. He noticed that he could not see Perrin's body. In fact, he was right outside of the air-car. He had partial connection to his body. Their fingers lowered.

"Will we meet again?" Sarek asked.

"If you prefer to let your katra go instead of being around to teach other Vulcans what you know and let them learn from you, maybe one day we will."

"It would be lonely to be without you for the rest of eternity." Sarek said.

"Live long and prosper, my husband." Amanda said, performing the Vulcan salute.

"Live long and prosper." Sarek opened his eyes to find himself back in his body that surprisingly ached.

Sarek had been on the verge of death for exactly four minutes and thirty-two second. Sarek felt along for the glass window above him then he delivered a Vulcan punch making it fly into the sky right into the madness unfolding. It was illogical to put one in harms way. But it was logical to get the woman he cared about out of harms way and to a doctor. His logic was not uncertain then and it will never be. Sarek looked up seeing the weather had not lifted.

The air car was sent tumbling over landing against a wall of some kind this time making the air-car be propped sideways facing the dark scenery where umbrellas were flying, tables were sent tumbling over breaking apart into pieces, and automatically vaporizing trash cans were following in the direction of the debris. Sarek had to help himself instead of requesting it. Sarek could feel the pain in his head worsen. But the main concern on Sarek's mind was for Perrin, his wife. He pressed a button that detracted his seat belt making the Vulcan slide down. He quickly registered his back did not feel right. it also became apparent that his knees had been injured but it was only mild pain not life threatening or anything for that matter.

Sarek made a mental note to himself to fall into a healing trance once the whole ordeal was over.

* * *

"But dad-"

"There could be someone out there who needs help, Joanna." McCoy said.

"You are not going without a flashlight," Joanna said. "You will be going out _blind_ , and I am going with you."

McCoy searched around for a flashlight.

"If Spock were here . . ." McCoy opened the closet door feeling a flashlight fall right out colliding against his wrist. McCoy picked up the flashlight then handed a spare flashlight to his daughter. He searched around for a spare medical bag that had medical related hypos and pills, and other equipment to take care of injuries in case one wasn't able to get to the hospital. "Spock would have a good percentage of the chance that there is wounded people out there and remind me of the chances that could lead up to my death for goin' out into a illogical storm for someone that may or may not be dead."

"That never stopped you." Joanna said.

"And it won't," McCoy said. "But aren't you scared of the storm outside?"

"Long as I have my dad, I am not afraid," Joanna said. "You faced Trelane and came back alive. Just because there is a storm doesn't mean we will die."

"Comin' from you that sounds very concernin'." McCoy opened the door where he could see the front door was torn open and there was a mess in the large apartment with shattered material here and there. McCoy paused, putting on his game face that he had been practicing for eleven years. He looked right over in the direction of his daughter. "If you are ever goin' to be a nurse,Joanna, . . . You will have to face dangers like this."

"I am ready, dad." Joanna said.

Then the father and daughter went out.

* * *

It was difficult to get Perrin out of the air-car but Sarek managed to get her out.

All over the world there were improvised emergency stations to treat those who had been injured due to the weather and the power black out. Everything on Earth was powered by the sun. Clouds blanketed the planet. They had the emergency medical stations made because the hospitals were getting an influx of patients and they needed to expand. The hospitals were crowded. Nobody knew if there were causalities because of this freak storm. Star Base 1 had adrift shuttle crafts with people stuck in them attempting to hail the starbase. Some people were stuck in their quarters on the star base. Everyone affected by the probe in space were stuck.

Sarek saw a yellow-red light coming from behind the shape of square that had a glint and there was a threshold alongside with a glowing entrance with moving figures. The whistling of the powerful wind made it impossible to hear what was coming from the building. The Vulcan pushed himself forward holding Perrin in his arms. He could feel the wind fighting back at him forcing him back sliding every meter. Sarek fought back against the wind. He managed to come into the building to see there being nurses attending the wounded among the chaos was concern and worry, even fear. Sarek caught sight of a familiar man with graying hair attending to a patient hypoing him. The man, with hazel eyes, looked up in the direction of Sarek with a look of recognition in his eyes. He had treated the Vulcan once for his heart attack on the _Enterprise_.

"Nurse!" McCoy shouted.

Nurse Griffin and Joanna looked over to see Sarek soaked in the doorway appearing to be emotionless. They also quickly registered the sight of a wounded Sarek, who likely was not aware of the physical injuries he had, standing motionlessly. The two came to Sarek's aid motioning Perrin onto a make shift bed then Joanna looked up in the direction of Sarek taking in his appearance which was a good indicator he had suffered some head trauma to a air-car crash and he needed to be resting then walking around.

McCoy was dealing with a patient who had been the victim of a unfortunate accident that involved their left eye and a gauze covering it with a soft fluffy item to halt the bleeding for now. McCoy hypoed his patient letting them close their eyes and rest until better adequate help could be given. Nurse Griffen helped Joanna wrap up the easy to fix injuries with gauze (and those that could not be repaired right now by machine). Some hyposprays had chemicals that dealt with the inside injurys and repaired them, mostly. The machines that did all the major repair were currently down because of the lack of access to the power shared by many other subjects like it.

Nurse Griffen and Joanna went to a family member of a patient who was frantic and hysterical that their loved one wasn't breathing and they were going to lose them.

McCoy used his medical tricorder, that was on limited power, to check on the injuries Perrin and Sarek had.

"Nice to see you, again, Ambassador," McCoy said,looking over to the Vulcan who was in the chair by Perrin's side. "What were the chances of us meeting again?"

"Sixty-nine point eighty-three percent." Sarek said.

McCoy looked over toward Sarek.

"How has your son been?" McCoy asked.

"It depends which one you are referring to." Sarek said.

"Captain Spock." McCoy said.

"Far as I am aware, he is fine," Sarek said. "It is fortunate that he was not here to see Earth's current condition."

"You should rest,Ambassador," McCoy said. "I will get to you after Perrin. There is nothin' you can do right now but hope for the best."

Sarek closed his eyes, focusing on the wounds he had and he fell into a healing trance as McCoy grew a concerned look with his eyes on the scanner.

* * *

"I have inputted the calculations for the time travel around the sun." Spock Prime said.

"Spock, what do you remember about our time in the 20th century?" McCoy Prime asked.

"I remember we had a frequency for the whales which is. . ." Spock Prime stopped.

"Which is?. . ." McCoy Prime asked.

"I do not seem to remember." Spock Prime replied.

"Damn dementia!" McCoy Prime said.

"Do you?" Spock Prime said.

"No." McCoy Prime said.

"I remember 60 by 90 glass wall required for the whales that you and Scotty were able to get, you bought me a bar of chocolate, I ate some, and drunkingly went into the water three hours afterwards to communicate with the whales," Spock Prime said. "Sulu flew a Huey, Chekov fell a good distance and was taken to the Mercy Hospital," Chekov grew a distressed look on his face. "Miss Taylor joined us to the 23rd century and she became a very influential figure in humpback whales studys. We also crashed the Bounty under the bridge, Jim got the whales out of the ship, and the whales saved the planet. Jim also tossed me in to the water but I took him with me in celebration of saving the planet."

"How kome no one told me we were going to krash this ship until now?" Chekov asked, looking over.

"Not intentionally," Spock Prime said. "We would have beamed it down."

"If we had not been neutralized by the probe." McCoy Prime said.

"Excuse me, but how do we know that this 'Taylor' is supposed to be brought three hundred years into the future?" Chekov asked.

Scotty was getting himself familiar to the transporter consoles, testing out random objects and anything for that matter to understand how it worked so if he had to beam someone out or in he could it in ease. Scotty was basically testing how everything worked. He was also snacking on a salad sandwich. The two old men shared a glance with one another then turned their heads in the direction of Chekov.

"Shortly after the departure of Gracie and George, Gillian Taylor went missing four hours, thirty two minutes, and seven seconds after a altercation with her co-worker," Spock Prime replied. "I have done the sufficient research on specific individuals of this time that we knew in our time. Edith Keeler still died by a car accident with two men preventing a third man from saving her life. Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner died due to the banishment of a unknown entity by Captain Kirk. I was quite puzzled that Taylor had gone missing despite there being no whale whales, no wrath of Khan, no V'Ger, I was very certain that Earth did not need to have whales. I had done extensive research in the neutral zone thanks to some resources I acquired there."

"And then it popped up out of no where like before." McCoy Prime said.

"It appears that I was wrong." Spock Prime admitted.

"And what about your brother?" McCoy Prime asked.

"That has been taken care of," Spock Prime said. "Sybok has immersed himself in Vulcan Therapy as a healer to help other Vulcans with their emotions."

"Great, I can thank him for helpin' me gettin' over the guilt." McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime raised an gray arched eyebrow.

"I do not see how logical that is to thank a version of my brother who has not done it to you." Spock Prime acknowledged.

"We need to set a appointment for my other self." McCoy Prime said.

"Speed climbing," Sulu said. "Preparing to make orbit with the sun."

Speller, to her left, had a powered up padd with a mathematical equation. She put it into a disk like space then grabbed onto the station. Spock Prime and McCoy Prime were holding onto their station bracing for impact (Or to be precise: arrival). Sulu guided the starship quickly into the designated slingshot form.

"Warp 9.1," Sulu said, watching the numbers fly. "Warp 9.5," The starship trembled making a rocky sound. "Warp 10.1," Sulu's hands were on the side of his console feeling it vibrate against his fingertips. "Warp 10.5," McCoy Prime saw, what was strange, a familiar figure sitting in the captain's chair. "Warp 11.1!"

"Jim." McCoy Prime said.

"Warp 11. 5!" The voice was replaced by Sulu Prime.

McCoy Prime stared at the direction of Jim then looked over to see Spock Prime was younger, his hair raven black, and to his other side there was Uhura Prime at her station bracing for a landing as well. Her dark hair had not quite turned gray, yet. There was tension about the room in the moments he was there. McCoy Prime turned his head in the direction of Jim feeling loss.

The same loss he experienced learning that Jim was officially dead by Spock Prime.

"Let us loose, Mr Sulu!" Jim's voice was crystal clear as day.

"Putting breaks on, captain." Came Sulu Prime's voice.

The scene shifted back into the current day starship.

"Brace for landing!" Sulu shouted.

And then the starship thwarted forwards once it made the trip around the sun. Everyone was knocked cold out, especially McCoy Prime. His hands were on the console and his head was laid against the console. Spock Prime looked as though he were meditating, keeping himself in place, Speller had landed on the floor. Sulu was against the seat sideways with head tipped forward. Chekov was on the floor.

" _There be whales here, Rear Admiral."_ Scotty's voice came to.

" _We need new dillithium crystals._ " Scotty's voice, again.

" _I do not believe we may make this trek on foot, Leonard."_ Spock Prime's voice rang through.

 _"Spock, don't go in there-I know you have a guilty conscience but humans don't see Vulcans until 2063!"_ McCoy Prime's voice came to.

 _"My apologies,"_ Came Spock Prime's voice. "I _was the one who nerve pinched him. Not Mr Nimoy. I am from Russia."_

 _"This is a antique . . ."_ Came a older man's voice.

 _"Hello, pal, how's the universe been treating you? Oh? Swell!"_ It was a deep male voice. _"I didn't arrange everything, I just set some factors into motion, buddy."_

 _"Spock, is that you?"_ It was Jim's voice.

McCoy Prime dreamed seeing the heads of their small group come out of what seemed to be a sea of polyalloy then the scene turned to a holographic body crashing through the earth's atmosphere then landing in the water. A starship falling through the atmosphere. A marsh with blades of grass sticking out waving from direction to direction. There was a breeze that made them move towards the right. The sound of a starship crash landing came after the breeze right into what seemed to be water.

McCoy Prime felt as though someone were shaking him by the shoulders.

"Admiral," Spock Prime said. "Wake up."

McCoy Prime awoke to hearing the voices of the others.

"I swear!" Chekov said. "There was a man like Kaptain Kirk in the kaptain's khair and a different man at your station who looked roughly like you!"

McCoy felt a pain alongside his head using his index fingers.

"You have a bruise, admiral." Spock Prime said.

"That was Jim you saw, Chekov." McCoy Prime said.

"Bu. . . But. . . But he wasn't the captain." Chekov said, looking over toward the admiral.

"I saw him too." McCoy Prime said.

"Admiral, did you experience a time slip?" Spock Prime said.

"I believe I have," McCoy Prime said, looking over to Speller who got up on her two feet rubbing the side of her legs with a wince. "Miss Speller, come to sick bay with me and get your leg fixed!"

McCoy Prime noticed they were above Earth.

". . . Admiral, when are we?" Sulu asked, turned away from his station.

"Rear Admiral to you," McCoy Prime said, getting up from the station then headed over to Speller. "1986, need any proof? Then go to San Fransisco and land in the park. George and Gracie are in the city. I have no idea what location they are at. . . but I am sure Spock does not remember."

"I do not." Spock Prime said.

"Hikaru, weren't you born in San Fransisco?" Chekov asked.

"That I was," Sulu said. "Or will be."

"Like me being born in Russia." Chekov said.

McCoy Prime helped the women up allowing Speller to hold her leg up in pain.

"We will go down to the nearest park." Sulu said.

McCoy Prime helped Speller out of the bridge and together they headed down to the sick bay section of the starship.

"Due to the atmosphere conditions, we are in the early twentieth century." Spock Prime said, as the doors had closed behind the doctor.


	5. Chapter 5

McCoy Prime appeared to be distressed looking at a screen on a machine, in the middle of a conversation with Speller, in Med Bay.

"Doctor?" Speller asked, sitting on the biobed.

McCoy Prime looked over toward her.

"You didn't know what exactly you were doin' or that I would come out of it alive," McCoy Prime said. "I know my shelf life."

"But Doctor McCoy, I did know what I was doing!" Speller said.

"Like hell you did." McCoy Prime said.

"But there is a bright side to it." Speller said.

There was a grave expression on McCoy Prime's face.

"Are you kiddin' me?" McCoy Prime repeated. "My shelf life is _not_ bright."

"But long enough to create a new life, Do-" Speller was cut off.

"I am not goin' to die long after everyone dies," McCoy Prime cut her off. "I am goin' to die _before_ everyone does." Speller lowered her head apologetically with a sigh. "You programmed that transporter to put in a system that CHANGED my biological clock and my internal agin' clock." He gestured over to the machine that had the results. "Hell,I did not know my internal agin' had become faulty until I ran the tests. You gave me fifteen years rather than one hundred!" Speller lifted her head up. "You gave me _fifteen_ years with Spock!"

"Doctor . . ." Speller said.

"Don't doctor me!" McCoy Prime said, shaking his index finger pointing at her. "Spock is going to outlive me again and I don't want him to watch me die. I watched him _die_ behind a glass wall and I don't want Spock to watch me die. HE IS GOIN' TO WATCH ME DETERIORATE! AND THERE IS NOTHIN' HE CAN DO. HE IS GOIN' TO LOSE ANOTHER T'HY'LARA AND IT WILL HURT HIM SO MUCH, HE WILL LIKELY EXPIRE SOONER THAN LATER! THAT IS UNNATURAL, YOUNG LADY, I RATHER TO HAVE BEEN LEFT IN THERE OR BEEN TAKEN OUT IN ANOTHER TIMELINE WHERE SPOCK IS MIDDLE AGED,JIM IS ALIVE, AND THE OTHER ME ISN'T."

"You two are. . ." Speller gasped.

"No," McCoy Prime said. "Brothers."

"But you just said-" Speller was cut off.

"Jim is his lover and friend . . . or was . . . ." The doctor had a pause,regaining his composure, and his voice lowered to a sorrowful tone. "I was there to comfort the Vulcan when his BOND SNAPPED. Have you ever seen a man grievin' for the loss of his wife of fifty years? Double that. He knew Jim for _TWENTY-EIGHT YEARS_! I never seen a upset Vulcan like him attempt to undertake a Kolinahr compromised for so much. I stopped him from takin' it. That's why he still has emotions," McCoy Prime had a sigh, lowering his hand down. "Spock and I are brothers. We don't share the bond but we share a family bond."

"Oh my god . . ." Speller covered her mouth, taken back, briefly then she lowered her hand down. "I am so sorry."

"Spock watch his brother die the first time and I was not goin' to let him watch his other brother die, again!" McCoy Prime said. "You have screwed up Spock's life for the worst."

"I am sorry . . ." Speller lowered her head then looked back up toward McCoy Prime. "I can make it up for you-"

"Hell no, you have done enough harm today," McCoy Prime shook his hand, with a scowl. "Don't. Even. Think. About. It!"

"But you don't know." Speller said.

"I know," McCoy Prime said. "I know what a transporter technician like you might be thinkin' so stop it. Stop it!" McCoy Prime shook his hand. "Stop thinkin' about it, Miss Speller. We will meet Jim again, without your help, in the great beyond." The doctor sighed. "If anythin', Spock's human side is goin' to make him be un-Vulcan and he needs some-one to be there for him. I will take care of him when he can not take care of himself. Jim should be doin' this. Not me." He closed his eyes feeling a tear coming down and he was trembling. He flicked off what remained off the tear. Then he pointed toward the door. "Out of sick bay."

"It is called Med Bay." Speller said, softly.

"I don't care. Get out of _my_ sick bay. I have some packin' to do in case anyone of you gets hurt!" McCoy Prime said. "This is medievalisim compared to our technology!"

Speller got off the biobed, her leg good as new, and she went out.

* * *

"We need new dillithium crystals." Scotty said, as McCoy Prime looked through the window to see the damaged dillithium crystals.

McCoy Prime turned his head back in the direction of Scotty.

"Can we get new ones?" McCoy Prime asked.

"I do nae believe I can make or find new dilithium crystals," Scotty said. "Not without 23rd century technology in the 20th century. We will have twenty-four hours of cloakin' before it crystallize completely."

"Dissapointin'." McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime came out with a device in his hands.

"I believe I know where to find some high-energy radioactive photons." Spock Prime said.

"And where is that?" McCoy Prime said.

"The nearby place to find these is the _Enterprise_ ," Spock Prime said. "I seem to recall it is a naval vessel."

* * *

McCoy Prime was headed down the hall heading to the bridge. Spock Prime and McCoy Prime had decided how they were going to get all the required tasks done. Spock Prime had vouched to get the room that would later become a tank get empty. McCoy Prime recalled redecorating the Klingon quarters the first time around but this time he decided not to redecorate it since it would be a waste of time and they did not have much time on their hands to save the planet. He was heading toward the bridge.

McCoy Prime heard a familiar voice that made him stop in his tracks. The doctor noticed there was a scene ripped out of the past in a tunnel that was different to the inside of this version of the _Bounty_. He could feel his heart race. McCoy Prime entirely froze where he stood seeing two men who were currently dead in his past. Sulu Prime appeared to be alive, healthy, though holding a unusual plant in his arms inside a brown pot with black intricate designs along the side and two leaves that were actually venus fly trap like jaws.

"Sulu, that is not a plant." Jim said.

"This is a Vulcan plant." Sulu Prime argued back.

"That is a weed." Jim said.

Chekov Prime walked in appearing to be confused.

"What kind of Wulcan weed is that?" His eyes landed on the pot.

"Chekov!" Sulu Prime said. "You are supposed to be backing me up here."

"Spend three months on Wulcan and you know distinctively what is a Wulcan weed," Chekov said. "You should know about this."

"Gentlemen, how about you two compare weeds?" Jim said. "There could be two types of Vulcan plants. Perhaps Hikaru here is confusing one breed of Vulcan weed for another."

"That would be the most reasonable assumption." Chekov Prime said.

"But Stonn told me this is not a weed." Sulu Prime said.

Jim had a bemused look on his face.

"Vulcans exaggerate," Jim said, then he looked away to see McCoy Prime standing there down the hallway. "Hey Bones!" He patted the shoulder of Sulu then approached McCoy Prime. It became apparent to the Vulcan that he had a major time slip. "Is the Vulcan researcher done asking you-" When the man was utterly close to McCoy Prime, the doctor brought the admiral into a rather unexpected hug.

McCoy Prime could smell the sands of Vulcan from Jim's boots (it had a distinctive smell) and what had been on Jim's face hours ago being the Klingon shaving cream.

"I never took you for a man who missed someone only a few hours afterwards." Jim said, jokingly.

McCoy Prime peeled himself off.

"Jim, there is somethin' I have been meanin' to tell you," McCoy Prime said, taking the shoulder of his old friend.

Jim raised an eyebrow. Our scene transitioned to the two sitting on a bench alongside the dark wall with McCoy Prime no longer holding one hand on his friends shoulder. They were sitting side by side in the dimly red lit hallway. There was silence in the hall that if someone dropped a penny then the echo would linger behind. Jim, however, appeared to be concerned with his eyebrow lowered. There were days, during the eighty-five years absence of Jim, where McCoy Prime would find himself talking to thin air like the man was there standing in the flesh speaking with him. It helped the doctor relieve the stress on his shoulders and on his mind (Meditating also did the trick most of the time) but he had genuinely missed the younger man.

"Sounds like you are expecting to die because of being on Vulcan for so long." Jim said, noting on the doctor's tone.

"I won't die on Vulcan," McCoy Prime said. "In fact . . . I will die in Georgia, safest state on the planet, with my family."

"Well, that is expected coming from you." Jim said.

"Call it intuition," McCoy Prime said, watching the man's befiddled expression return to its normal, casual one. "Jim, I might not get to tell you in the next hundred and regret sayin' this. Do you remember the first day we met?" The admiral nodded. "You had just lost Gary. Your heart was broken. I was a doctor who hadn't any experience in tendin' Vulcans, divin' feet first into ten feet in innsanity, and goin' through mission after mission. Truth to be told. . . I enjoyed them with you. Savin' planets, people, and entire civilizations." McCoy Prime had a fond smile at an era that was bygone. "Arguin' with Spock was just a bonus."

There was a pause between McCoy Prime and Jim as it sunk into the admiral.

There was concern spreading on Jim's face.

"Are . . . Are you dying?" Jim asked.

"No," McCoy Prime said, shaking his hand. "I will die after you do. Very shortly." The doctor sighed. Jim grew a concerned look on his face. "Jim, there is somethin' else I have been meanin' to say and I am not goin' to say this again. Because when a man knows he is goin' to die eventually, or rather, maybe sooner . . ."

McCoy Prime talked, and talked, making to sure to cover what had happened in the past and not in the future. Carefully, describing, how exactly and how much the admiral was like a family member to him. He also talked about numerous other things but it was a rather deep talk. Jim listened to it with eyebrows lowered to the full extent. He didn't notice what the doctor was wearing because why would anyone be paying attention to someone's attire during a deep conversation. It was McCoy's 'the talk' moment. He must have been talking for a full hour. There were many admissions the doctor found himself making. Some of the memories McCoy Prime brought up made the admiral snicker.

"I never considered the days would pass so fast I would be left unable to tell you that," McCoy Prime went on. He looked over toward the admiral with a dark look but sincere. "Jim,you will _not_ die alone. I never considered the days would pass so fast I would be left unable to tell you that." Jim's eyes widened and his eyebrows parted ways upwards. "I came here to tell you what I should have told you one hundred years ago. I didn't arrange for this conversation. The opportunity came. To tell you what I should have told you when I was still alive, all those years ago, and . . . Spock misses you the most. Yes, he is still alive and kickin'."

McCoy stood up looking down upon the stunned admiral.

"You are from the future . . ." Jim said. "A ghost."

"Never that," McCoy Prime said, shaking his head. "I was just brought back to life." A glint of confusion, joy, and delight in the young admiral's eyes. Compassionate, the one that followed him wherever he went leading his landing parties on missions. "I call that cruel because you are _dead_ , Jim. And I am not." There was a look of heartbreak on Jim's face. "And by the way, that was Vulcan weed." Jim noticed the attire McCoy Prime was wearing. It was different. McCoy Prime had on a different outfit when he left the ship. "Time slips are short. I am glad it happened. Just to see you alive once more."

Jim noticed the hallway changed before his eyes to a darker shaded one.

McCoy Prime headed down the hallway but then he stopped mid-way.

"Damn it, Jim," McCoy Prime turned in the direction of the sitting man. "If you cry because of me then your neck will have a hypospray in it within the next twenty-four hours, is that clear? You should not grieve over what has not happened, yet. Do _not_ grieve for me." Familiar words to Jim's ears. "I hate to remember that you were cryin' when I got back from the youn' interested Vulcan."

"You have my word." Jim said, holding his hand up.

McCoy Prime had a wary eye then he turned away where he vanished into thin air. Jim's vision grew blurry and he realized he was crying. Jim slid his hands down his face feeling like he just lost his best friend, while leaned forward. The hall had returned to its usual red shade. Minutes later Jim stood up from the bench then he went down the hall appearing to be fine. He flicked off another tear as we went behind him in the hall watching him go.

* * *

Chekov handed everyone their communicators, Vulcan style (small and circular, portable), including Speller. Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty were to get the necessary equipment for a tank inside the _Bounty_ , Speller was to find some photons from a nuclear waste carrying ship (being the _Enterprise_ ) and collect them with a device (Since Spock Prime had no idea where the _Enterprise_ was for that matter), last of all McCoy Prime and Spock Prime were to find the whales. Earlier, Speller had ensured that there were in fact Humpback whales in San Fransisco.

"Did I mention the story where a Russian named Capacitiov Spauwk with pointy ears came into-" Chekov started but the doctor cut him off.

"No, don't." McCoy Prime said.

Sulu looked over toward the Russian with a raised eyebrow.

"You never told me that story." Sulu said.

"It just occurred to me," Chekov said. "Russia denied it wholeheartedly and everyone else involved claimed there was a pointy eared man who did not sound Russian. It is a funny story my parents loved to joke about when I was a child."

Spock Prime raised an arched eyebrow.

The starship had landed in the middle of a park on the grass. Spock Prime had seen the garbage truck with the employee's (who never reported the event far as he was aware) flee with one of them half out of the window to the truck dangling their legs out in the air illogically. It would have been logical (if they were pretending to act like it never happened) to walk into the opened front side of the vehicle with both car doors opened then the doors would have been slammed shut. This was a notable difference to the day if not for Stuark randomly popping out of no where and nearly giving McCoy Prime a heart attack: everything was fine. Stuark had insisted he help since he had done one thing and he had been around Speller for at least five years, six months, two weeks, four days, four hours, and thirty-two minutes prior as a consultant on the _USS Yorktown_. They insisted they were friends. Stuark was to man the store while they were away so he would open the door upon their return.

"Spock, you must wear the prosthetic's." McCoy Prime said, holding the prosthetic's in his hands.

"What about genetic surgery?" Spock Prime asked.

"I am afraid we do not have the tools to do that," McCoy Prime said. "So, it is logical to disguise yourself in a time that is quite frankly paranoid by aliens abducting them or invading Earth. You look like some version of the devil but elderly!"

"Point taken," Spock Prime put on the prosthetic ears and the prosthetic forehead. "Do I need a wig?"

There was a pause among the group.

"You still have the bowl hair kut." Chekov said.

"Without the ears and the forehead with the eyebrows, you look like a monk,Ambassador." Sulu said.

". . .Hold on a minute,Spock, I am replicating a wig!" McCoy Prime went into a spare room. "A gray one!"

Everyone had changed into a early twentieth attire so they blended in. They had their phasers attached to their holsters hidden by their jackets zipped up halfway. Both, communicator and phaser, had to be used in case of emergency. Spock Prime had barely recalled what Jim had said before they made it out of the Bird-Of-Prey as a group into a troubling colorful metaphorical time. But what Spock Prime had not forgotten was " _Swear every other word, that is how people notice you._ " and " _Can you tone down the cussing, Spock? It is not for you._ " that he could still remember after one hundred years. McCoy Prime was the one who told everyone regarding the use of their communicators and their phasers to which Sulu commented, "Back in the day, in the fictional science fiction shows of the 1980's, phasers were called ray guns." To which Chekov replied, "Well, that is dumb." and Sulu replied with "Very dumb."

McCoy Prime came back with two wigs

"The Trump wig," McCoy Prime held up the blonde wig. "Or the Harrison Ford wig?"

"What the hell is wrong with that wig?" Speller said. "It looks like it has a life of its own."

"Who is this Trump?" Chekov asked.

"Donald J Trump is well known in both realities for his reality star persona and his business that destroyed itself shortly after the Eugenics Wars," Spock Prime explained. "He attempted to become 'President' in 2016 until the very end. Hillary Clinton took over by a large majority. Republicans and Democrats, at that time, had become a singular party. Donald Trump had lead what remained of a disgraced Republican party and it shamed most of the former Republicans that he referred to himself as a member to a dead party. Donald Trump publicly humiliated himself after losing to Hillary Clinton and the media mocked him for his 'huuuuge' loss. Clinton devoted most of what Barack Obama had devoted his presidency to: rebuilding America. Most of the world leaders had previous experience with President Clinton. So they were very familiar to her and negotiating was easier. The economy, however, was still reeling from the wars. In fact, around the internet (or what remained of it) during the election of 2016, there were various Donald Trump hair memes."

"Do you want the Harrison Ford wig?" McCoy Prime said.

"It looks scruffy, and dark brown." Sulu noted.

"And it makes the ambassador stand out like a sore thumb, Rear Admiral." Chekov said.

"That is a illogical choice." Spock Prime said.

". . . Don't make me wish you had the Bendii syndrome." McCoy Prime replied.

Spock Prime raised a gray arched eyebrow.

"What is the Bendii Syndrome?" Spock Prime asked.

The look on McCoy Prime's face faltered.

". . . I will be right back." McCoy Prime went back into the room with the two wigs.

Spock Prime's memory was waning, that the Vulcan was aware of. It used to be eidetic, and well, it is partially still eidetic. Spock Prime was definitely concerned but far as he was aware the most precious memories were still in tact for the Vulcan. His logic was uncertain, very sound. Speller looked over toward the aged Vulcan appearing to be concerned. Forgetfulness is part of aging. That had to be a side effect from his human side due to aging. It was like being clumsy and dropping memories while holding a stack of paperwork down the hall and ending up bumping into some-one. Most Vulcans held onto their memories well into their two hundreds. Spock Prime had only forgotten minor details far as he was concerned and Bendii's syndrome may be one of them.

McCoy Prime came back with a new wig, similar to Harrison Ford's hair style, that was gray.

"Do you want the Harrison Ford wig, now?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Gladly." Spock Prime took the wig then he put it on.

The wig, unlike 20th century wigs, was programmed to cover the original hair (or the bald spot) then make it apparent that this is their hair style. In one minute the graying hair bangs vanished. There was a subtle difference but it was notable to the group since it appeared then Spock Prime didn't have the monk hair cut. He had changed, as well, into early twentieth century attire except he put on a one piece suit underneath. It was considered logical to request the whales to help rather than just take them and leave them so confused that was very illogical. McCoy Prime grew a wide smile on his face seeing the new hair style.

"Fits you like a glove." McCoy Prime said.

"And you look very un-Wulcan." Chekov said.

"Let's go." Spock Prime said, pressing the side of the lever.

The back end slowly went down to display the darkness resting outside of the belly of the starship. The fresh grass coated in trash. It irked Spock Prime how the sanitation workers had not fully taken care of the mess that still laid around the scenery. They were truly in Golden Gate Park. The platform came to a landing. The atmosphere was better than it had been in the century that they were from as it was still undergoing repairs from the air pollution it had been subjected to. They had the technology to perform the repairs to a sustainable level that was remarkably nearly close to this. Fresh,cool air came up the ramp.

The group made their way down the ramp.

Staurk was at the entrance.

"If you would like to make yourself useful, then disintegrate the garbage before people arrive, Mr Staurk," McCoy Prime said. "Everyone, remember where we parked!"

Sulu held up a small device and pressed on it making two click sounds in the background from the starship.

* * *

"I have a antique." Chekov said.

"What is it, Chekov?" McCoy Prime said.

"A horse shoe. It was made in Russia," Chekov looked over toward Sulu who was listening to Scotty about a different subject then turned his head in the direction of McCoy Prime. "Sulu bought it for me. He told me it was made in the 16th century, or so he said." He handed the horse shoe to the the doctor. "I have realized this gift will be given to me again."

"Another closed time loop." McCoy Prime said.

"That is the beauty of it." Spock Prime muttered to himself, echoing back what Jim had said, _"And it will be again._ "

Chekov nodded.

"I had it on me this entire time for good luck." Chekov said.

"You will have to tell Sulu." McCoy Prime said.

Chekov smiled.

"I will," Cheov said. "Later."

McCoy Prime found it surprising that they hadn't been honked at or rudely been cussed at being in the already active city. It was daylight outside in the usually active city that wasn't much crowded like New York. McCoy Prime nodded in understanding. The group was on the side walk far from the passing vehicles and potential road rage. They had checked what the date was thanks to a newspaper stand that had a heading regarding nuclear waste (which Sulu considered to be odd). They needed money to get from place to place.

Spock Prime and McCoy Prime entered the antique store.

Behind the counter there was a man with a optical related glass pressed alongside his eye staring at a unusual item that he was nitpicking at. It had the shape of Star Fleet insignia. It was golden. He tapped on it which it made a light beep sound. Spock Prime recognized the combadge then they shared a confused and startled expression with one another quite puzzled how 24th century technology ended up here. The ringing of the bell attached to the door brought the man out of his intense focus then he looked over toward them lowering the combadge down to the table. McCoy Prime approached the counter with a smile.

"How much will you give us for this potential antique?" McCoy Prime slid the horse shoe on the table.

The man, Arnold Henry, picked up the horse shoe and took the glass off his eye then put on a pair of glasses.

"This is a antique . . ." Arnold said. "But . . ." He blinked. "This is a rare. Maybe?" He had a shrug, generally, unsure. "I believe I have another just like it."

"Well, perhaps I can help you with that," McCoy Prime said, leaning his elbow on the table leaning forward. "Two eyes are better than one."

Arnold's hazel eyes looked up in the direction of McCoy Prime.

"Why yes," Arnold said. "That is correct. Follow me. . . Mr?"

"McCoy." McCoy Prime said.

Arnold's eyes looked over toward Spock Prime.

"And your partner?" Arnold asked.

"Mi-my-my partner?" McCoy Prime was dumbstruck, stunned, to have been called 'Spock's partner' in other words.

"I did not intend to offend you, Mr McCoy." Arnold said, apologetically.

"We are not partners," Spock Prime said. "We are life brothers."

"Brothers for life?" Arnold asked.

Spock Prime nodded.

"Spiritually." Spock Prime said.

"I almost thought you were married. . ." Arnold said, earning a raised eyebrow from Spock. "Mr-"

"Spock." Spock Prime said, lowering his eyebrow.

"Spauwk?" Arnold repeated.

"Spock." Spock Prime repeated.

"Okay, Mr Spauwk . . ." Arnold said. "Don not try any funny business. You hear?"

"Doing 'funny' business is illogical," Spock Prime said. "As there is not a an audience to perform entertainment."

"You have a funny life brother." Arnold said, directing his attention toward McCoy Prime with a wary look in his eye.

"He lived with a family who abided by a fictional alien culture," McCoy Prime said, as went to the Arnold side then opened the latch. "He has amnesia due to a fall while I was the head of Saint Bernard Hospital. I once had to get a toy soldier out of a kid's stomach! He swallowed it, can you believe it?" Arnold nodded, commenting the fact he had two toddlers of his own. "And my life brother made entirely new memories. This man used to be a professor!" McCoy Prime pointed over toward Spock Prime. "I only found him again after comin' back to Broadway. He wanted to sell his first horse shoe that is 'intricate' and 'keepsake historically religious item for the Galactic Order'. I insisted that if he wanted to help them then the best way would be to sell it and it would find its way to the 'Galactic Order'." McCoy Prime looked over toward Spock Prime. "Right,Spock?"

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

Arnold's eyes brightened.

"Is it _Galaxy Quest_ by any chance?" Arnold asked.

"Why yes!" McCoy Prime said.

"My wife adores Tagny and Laggart," Arnold said, as he and McCoy Prime went over to the back. "Lazarus is my favorite Mak'Tar and Peter Taggart is my favorite commander. My wife adores Tawny and Taggart for some reason. I don't know why when Taggart is clearly _NOT_ interested in women. Mak'Tars are a extraordinary race. I absolutely cannot wait for the second season! I love the aliens on the show. I cannot, really, wait until we discover if aliens do exist in our world. Wouldn't that be awesome?" McCoy Prime nodded. "Humans and aliens, exploring space, peacefully, together. I heard they are going to have these pointy eared aliens on the show thirteen episodes into season two. . . ."

The chatter became mute as the door closed behind the door.

 _Ring, ring, ring_.

Spock Prime could sense a familiar entity enter.

"Hello pal, how's the universe been treating you?" Spock Prime looked over to see a familiar man with dark hair in his fifties holding a package in his arms.

"Ever since our encounter,Q, it has been eventful." Spock Prime said.

"Oh? Swell!" Q said,walking toward the Vulcan's direction cheerfully whistling.

Spock Prime eyed the entity as he came to the Vulcan's side.

"Why did you arrange the events of today to occur,Q?" Spock Prime asked.

Q appeared to be insulted looking in the direction of Spock Prime.

"I didn't arrange _everything_ , I just set some factors into motion, buddy." Q said.

Spock Prime glared at the entity.

"Q." Spock Prime said.

"Stop it, you are acting like no-fun-no-games Picard." Q placed the package on the table then he slapped a label on it. "AH!" He dramatically covered his eyes. "THAT GLARE IS BLINDING ME!"

Spock Prime continued to stare at the entity.

Q lowered his hand down, with a sigh, as if he had expected the Vulcan's reaction.

"Well," Q said, leaning against the counter taking a cigarette out from his jean pocket then he flicked on the lighter with the cigarette in between his fingers. "Earth was doomed to die because of Nero wiping out the Vulcan race-I meant _nearly_ ," He put the cigarette into his mouth. "I decided to in-directly influence this timeline. For obvious reasons. I know you don't approve of my in-direct 'meddling' (and nor does the continuum for that matter) but it had to be done in order for you to be here."

"You would get bored without Admiral Janeway to bother or Captain Picard." Spock Prime said.

Q glared at the Vulcan.

"Kathy is not ever going to be born, Ambassador," Q said, taking the cigarette out of his mouth. "Her . . ." He paused. "Her grandparent was on the _Farragut_." His voice lowered to a somber, but otherwise unlike-Q-that-Spock-Prime-had-known tone. "A shuttle craft technician."

"So?" Spock Prime asked. "I have not known for you-"

Q slammed his fist on the counter loudly cutting off the Vulcan looking up toward the Ambassador.

"SHE IS MY GRANDDAUGHTER!" Q snapped. "I CANNOT, AND WILL NOT: interfere on Kathy's timeline!"

Spock Prime stared at the entity, baffled.

"Admiral Janeway is your biological descendant?" Spock Prime asked.

"I was not turned Human once." Q said.

"Which grandparent?" Spock Prime asked.

"Catherine." Q said.

"The one who allowed the first . . ." Spock Prime stopped, watching the expression on the entity's face change. "You really loved Catherine, did you not?"

Q lowered his eyes down toward the table.

"I promised I wouldn't interfere in my family tree," Q took another puff then he lowered the cigarette. "But Jean-Luc. . ." A smile grew on the entity's face as the smoke came out from in between his lips. "He will. . . He will exist." He took another puff. "I can't arrange for history to change to allow good old Worf in. He has to do it himself."

"Are you human?" Spock Prime stepped forward.

Q glare over toward the Vulcan.

"After the pain they have caused me?" Q asked. "No, to be quite frank, I am terrified of becoming human again," He had the cigarette out. "This is a Q-cigeratte." The man shuddered. "The Q of this timeline. . . . Do you remember Captain Jack Harkness?"

"Affirmative," Spock Prime said. "I recall Jack flirting with me even though he is twice my age."

"Why, my counterpart looks _exactly_ like him." Q said.

Spock Prime raised an eyebrow.

"In this timeline?" Spock Prime asked.

Q nodded.

"In this timeline." Q said.

"Fascinating." Spock Prime said.

"He looks a lot like I was when appearing in my twenties to a group of teenagers swimming naked at a beach." Q said

"You have saved humanity despite the pain they have put you in," Spock Prime said. "You care about humanity yet you deny anything short of 'studying' and 'fascination'. I am well aware that you share a dotting crush on Picard." Q's face started to turn red. "It is very obvious."

"How do you know?" Q asked.

"Simple," Spock Prime replied. "You visit the _Enterprise-D_ ninety-nine point nine percent of the time. The _Voyager_ you visited thirty-two percent of the time. You visited _Deep Space Nine_ once and never dared to visit it again. There are many other visits to plenty of starships but all of those occasions were one time visits."

"That is. . . logical," Q said. "But I have to admit. . . Timelines do attempt to repair themselves. Even without my help, something like this would have happened." He took another puff of the Q-Cigarette then flicked what remained into a ash tray on the counter and put it back in. "My other self will be thoroughly enjoying the complimenting other you will be giving him."

"I highly doubt my younger self would have the patience." Spock Prime said.

"Oh come on, Spock," Q said. "You had the patience for me!"

Spock sighed.

"That was years afterwards." Spock Prime said.

"The asteroid is headed in the direction of Earth, prepared to strike, on December 31st, 1999," Q said. "James T. Kirk family tree is still alive."

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"So if it were to, lets say, strike Iowa and obliterate everyone because certain missiles hadn't been made . . . Your timeline is quite shaky. I say it falls under the category of deleting," Q lowered the cigarette with a grin. "Due to the lack of James Tiberius Kirk."

"It has already happened." Spock Prime said.

"And so many buttons your other self would have to press in my body," Q said. "And you messed with my filmsy hot men recording. My brain was on a 'James T. Kirk replay loop' for centuries!" Q waved his hands. "You do not know what I went through to get rid of it! How do you stand replaying your old friend in that eidetic memory of yours?"

"Because I love him." Spock Prime said, plainly.

"Oh, right," Q's face turned a shade of red. "That."

Q put the Q-Cigarette into his mouth.

"And may Picard appear different in this universe?" Spock Prime asked.

"He has hair," Q said. "And get this: he is in his thirties!"

"That is surprising." Spock Prime said.

"I have to go. . . " Q headed toward the door.

"Q, as your friend," Spock Prime said. "I implore you to talk about the loss of a relative that will never be with someone close."

"Like Picard?" Q turned away from the door. "I already tried. Shooed away." He shook his hand dismissingly. "He can't take a sign from a wildflower." The entity placed one hand on the doorway lowering his hand. "It would be a miracle if someone were to attempt to fix this. Which they can't. The past is the past."

"Q?" Spock said. "Are you all right? You are concerning me. Are you . . . sad?"

"Sad that he will never meet someone who will make him proud to make mistakes," Q said. "Yes, I am."

"Talk to someone." Spock Prime said.

"Like who?" Q asked.

"Pay a visit to Data. Any Data. Or Deanna Troi." Spock Prime suggested.

"You want me to have a session with _that_ counselor?" Q asked.

"It is very logical regarding you,Q, and you will be on your best behavior with her, that I am very sure of. You are very . . . quite bluntly. . . you are not yourself."

Q sighed.

"Fine," Q shook his hands. "I will talk to the counselor, just this once!"

"Just don't drop in after you made the offer to Mr Riker." Spock Prime said, warningly.

"She would have slapped me accordingly then." Q said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"Thank you for the advice," Q took the handle of the door, pausing. "I will make sure to take it . . . my friend." Q went out the door with the chimes of the bell then he went down the sidewalk where he surprisingly hadn't snapped his fingers to vanish in a white flash.

The two men came back from the other end of the building sharing a good laugh.

"My favorite episode is where Lazarus believes he is pregnant but it turns out it was a bad stomach ache he was having because of the blood ticks," Arnold said. "Quite a shame really that the Meechans got rid of Lazarus's home planet by the blue matter."

". . . Blue. . . matter. . ." Spock Prime said.

"Here, fourteen dollars for the horse shoe." Arnold held out the cash.

McCoy Prime glared in the direction of Arnold with a look that could kill.

"What the hell?" McCoy Prime said. "Are you takin' me for a senile fool?"

"I meant three hundred." Arnold said, taking another watt of cash out of the register.

If Jim were here, he would have said _"Is that a lot?"_ confused.

"Your package was delivered." Spock Prime spoke up.

"Oh," Arnold looked over to see the package with a smile. "May is going to love this." He handed the cash to McCoy Prime. "By the way. . . are you in the Lazarusania fanzine?"

"In fact, I am not that deep into the fandom," McCoy Prime said, shaking his hand. "Let me guess. . . That box full of zines."

"Uh huh!" Arnold said, with a quick nod. "And fanbooks. Gotta love 'em fanbooks."

"Let's go, Spock." McCoy Prime said

Spock Prime held his hand up, making the Vulcan salute.

"Live long and prosper." Spock Prime said

Arnold made the peace sign.

"By Grabthar's hammer, I wish you a honorable life." Arnold said.

Spock Prime turned away then followed after his friend.

 _Ring,ring, ring_.

The pair came back to the group.

"Do not splurge yourself into it," McCoy Prime said, evenly dividing the cash among them. "We only have so much."

* * *

"How do we make a water tank?" Chekov asked.

"Normally I would make it with transparent aluminum." Scotty replied.

"Transparent aluminum . . ." Sulu said. "But that hasn't been made, yet."

"Hey, wouldn't we need 60 x 10 not 60 x 90?" Chekov asked. "I checked the room previously . . . and I think the ambassador's measurements are off."

"Well, transparent aluminum was invented by Doctor Nichols." Scotty said.

"How do we find Doctor Nichols?" Sulu asked.

A man went out of a door being shouted at by what is presumably his wife. Children ran out of the door playfully chasing after one another. One of the boys, however, stopped in his tracks seeing Sulu. The boy smiled then spoke in Japanese to the older man. Sulu replied. They had a brief conversation. Chekov could see a great resemblance between the two. His eyes widened, gasping, at the realization.

"Akira!" A girl shouted.

Akira waved farewell to Sulu then ran after the group of kids.

"Who the hell was that?" Scotty asked.

"Akira Sulu," Sulu said. "My great-great-great grandfather."

Chekov looked forward to see a yellow pages advertisement.

"Yellow pages," Chekov said. "I believe we may find ways through Yellow Pages."

* * *

"I do not believe we may make this trek on foot, Leonard." Spock Prime said.

"All we have to do is find a bus that is not 'exact change'," McCoy Prime said. "And I am well aware of that."

Today, two friends were going to visit the Cetacean Institute to see two whales. They were waiting for the bus to arrive along with some other people. There was a impending bus headed their way. Of course this had been hours into the task at hand for the group in wherever they are. The two friends, you might ask. Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner, had apparently lost both of their modes of transportation due to unforeseen consequences of something previous.

"I am sorry about what happened your bike, Len," Shatner said. "I thought you would be there first."

"My wheels." Nimoy replied.

"Like, really, did a pair of racoons steal your wheels?" Shatner asked.

McCoy Prime and Spock Prime halted in their tracks seeing a reminiscent of their friend feet away speaking with someone who was apparently similar to Spock Prime without the pointy ears and the upwards eyebrows. McCoy Prime rubbed his chin muttering, "I'll be damned . . . You two have dopplegangars." Spock Prime noted how young the counterpart of his mate seemed to be Nimoy nodded.

"I have it on camera," Nimoy replied. "Ever since there were robberies going on my street, I decided to put up my camera in the garage and have it on when I was gone."

Shatner looked at Nimoy with pity.

"I should be happy I live in the city." Shatner said.

"And yet you parked your car and got it towed." Nnimoy said.

"Which is the downside of living in the city." Shatner said.

"Do you ever wonder if the way we live is the way the future remembers the past?" Nimoy asked.

"Sure, and the movies, and the books, and the tv shows," Shatner said. "You'll be fondly remembered at that guy who portrayed a heroic commander and I? A pointy eared elf with glasses." He sounded to be amused by that. "At least you have the better part of the stick on Galaxy Quest for that one episode. Like seriously? Do they honestly expect me to come back to portray a guy who refuses anyones advances? Women? Men?"'

"Perhaps . . . he is. . . not straight." Nimoy said.

"My character is asexual." Shatner said.

"Wait, he is?" Nimoy sounded surprised.

"I would be happy to portray him if he had a orientation with a good reason, for crying out loud." Shatner said,

"That actually sounds . . . why did I not get that role?" Nimoy asked.

"Because you totally do a much better version of a Commander than Nesmith." Shatner said,

"Bill, playing a character like yours is a chance in a lifetime," Nimoy said. "One appearance . . . And you are remembered for a millennia! I mean, you are portraying an alien figure who could just be prominent for appearing once. Just as prominent as Lazarus."

"Not a chance," Shatner said. "If anything . . . I prefer to have some interest. I can play a character when I know WHY he doesn't accept flirt around."

"I have to admit, Commander Kurk failed at flirting." Nimoy admitted.

Shatner gasped.

"No, Len, you did a _excellent_ job!" Shatner said.

Nimoy stared over toward Shatner.

"My audition for the role was your line." Nimoy said.

"Commander, I am appalled by your accusation that I am emotional, in fact, I resign!" Shatner repeated. "Vhicans do not feel."

"Half Vhican." Nimoy said.

"You really should have been given that role," Shatner said. "Besides, I hate that line. Not like anything good is going to come out of it." He shrugged. "And what makes people think I can do a legitimate classy 'eyebrow raise' when you do it better than I am even without the Vhican eyebrows?"

"Perhaps your persona is that likable." Nimoy suggested.

"My character is a dull, dim witted character." Shatner said.

"Bill, your delivery was contrary to that." Nimoy reminded Shatner.

"On the paper, he is." Shatner said.

"Wait, so. . . you?" Nimoy said, almost in shock.

"Improvised, YES!" Shatner said. "Why do you think Nesmith and Dane were acting strangely on the rescue scene?"

Nimoy had a laugh.

"Oh my god, you don't know how much that makes sense!" Nimoy said.

"And it wasn't even fun for me." Shatner said.

"Look on the bright side," Nimoy said, turning toward the direction of the oncoming bus. "There could be a Alternate Universe where Leonard Nimoy portrayed half human, half Vhican Commander Mister Spauwk and William Shatner portrayed Lieutenant Commander Jack Richard Kurk."

"Those must be lucky men." Shatner said.

"But there were always be one nexus point in where they meet," Nimoy said. " _The Man from UNCLE_."

The bus came to a stop in front of the sidewalk. There was a long consecutive line on the sidewalk. The doors opened and people walked out appearing to be disheveled. There was loud music booming from inside the bus. Spock Prime was thrown into the past standing right here with Jim without a crowd of people. A pleasant memory. Jim had been telling him of a time they had visited Resa together while on Shore Leave when they were returning to Earth. Jim had smiled then, head turned in the direction of Spock, not breaking eye contact. McCoy's hand landed on the side of Spock Prime's shoulder, squeezing it, tightly. The Vulcan was brought out of his memory.

"Come on, Spock." McCoy Prime said.

The two boarded the bus, Spock Prime let McCoy Prime do all the talking and deposited the cash into the holder informing the beardy driver where they wanted to go. Soon as McCoy Prime left, Spock Prime's eyes boggled to see Q in the chair grinning, young as he was before, tipping his hat forwards nonchalantly toward the much older Vulcan. Q then said, "Thank you for the advice, it really helped." When Spock blinked, in the chair was the same beardy man that McCoy Prime had seen who appeared to be bewildered. Spock Prime went after the direction of McCoy Prime walking right past their counterparts who were sharing a conversation regarding cats and dogs.

They came to the back where the source of the loud music was a man nodding his head, boombox on his lap, enjoying the music. There were visibly other people trying to drown it out reading novels, chatting, and some had their ears plugged. Nimoy and Shatner looked over in the direction of the source of the music both wearing a uncharacteristically scowl covering their ears then Shatner turned away grumbling "Kids these days." The punk rocker had orange hair with a afro,a nose piercing, a black collar with silver thorns, black wrists bands with spikes, ear piercings that had crosses, black jacket,white shirt, and black jeans. To Spock Prime, this completely complimented the stereotypical rebellious stage of a adolescent human being.

Spock Prime took off his prosthetics, temporally,putting them on his lap.

"Sir, can you please turn the music off?" McCoy Prime asked.

The punk rocker held his hand up then showed his middle finger.

"Fuck off, old man." The punk rocker said.

McCoy Prime frowned looked over toward Spock Prime then pointed toward the man's direction saying, "Did you just hear what he said?"

"Affirmative," Spock Prime said. "He told you to rub your-"

"No!" McCoy Prime cut him off.

"To go into a private area, unzip your pants, and rub-" Spock Prime started.

"Not _that_ ,Spock!" McCoy Prime said, his face red.

"He called you a old man," Spock Prime said. "You are insulted by being referred to as a old individual?"

"Wouldn't you be?" McCoy Prime asked.

"That I would," Spock Prime said. The Vulcan paused. "I see your point."

"I am asking you one more time, can you turn off that noise?" McCoy Prime leaned forward.

"Piss off." The punk rocker said.

"Do respect your elders," Spock Prime said. "Do you kiss your wife with that mouth?"

The Punk rocker glared at the direction of Spock Prime.

"Do do shut the fuck up, you messed up pointy eared old geezer." The punk rocker said.

McCoy Prime glared in the direction of the punk rocker and there was a 'I will kill you' look in Spock Prime's eyes.

"Pardon me." Spock Prime said, applying the Vulcan nerve pinch.

"Hey-"

The punk rocker's head landed on the boombox that abruptly turned off.

"Now he has shut himself the 'fuck' up." Spock Prime said, putting back on the prosthetic ears as everyone on the bus cheered.

McCoy Prime shook his head with a laugh, apparently amused.

"He did not make that hurtful insult to me last time." Spock Prime said.

"And did everyone cheer when you nerve pinched the kid?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime smiled.

"Our hero." McCoy Prime said.

* * *

The bus came to a stop at the Cetacean Institute. Several of the people who had been sitting stood up as did Nimoy and Shatner. The punk rocker slowly began to regain consciousness feeling the side of his neck aching with a groan. Spock Prime and McCoy Prime were in the middle headed toward the exit of the bus. The punk rocker rubbed the side of his neck then looked over to see the two men were exiting the bus. He picked up his boombox then started to race after them.

"WHY YOU OLD GEEZER!"

Spock Prime got off and to the sidewalk where the punk rocker's face hit the door and the bus speed off.

"Number of enemies you made since getting here: one." McCoy Prime said.

"He did not chase after me last time." Spock Prime noted.

The group made their way into the familiar institute, Shatner and Nimoy were extraordinary silent at the lead of the line ( _naturally_ , McCoy Prime figured, _because they are figures of authority in any universe_ ) opening the doors first and allowing the group to pass through each taking a turn to push the door to the side. They looked around to see the dangling replicas of whales ranging from variate that had since been extinct. McCoy Prime gazed sadly at the extinct sea beasts.

"At least the dolphins exist." McCoy Prime said.

"Hello!" A blonde woman with curly hair resting on her shoulders came with hazel eyes (instead of blue ones) to the group. "I am Doctor Gillian Taylor, your guide."

"Nice to meet you, Miss Taylor." Came Nimoy's voice.

"Same here." Shatner added.

"Follow me." Taylor said.

The group followed the woman in the building to various aspects. McCoy Prime looked over toward the video of the numerous humans slaying humpback whales using long poles and peeling their long skin off their carcasses. There was no beauty in the sad demise of a beautiful species, the only one able to save Earth. McCoy Prime had a tired, sad expression on his face seeing these images. Pity, even. Spock Prime noticed that expression on the doctor's face.

"That is illogical to hunt a species to its extinction." Came Nimoy.

"Who ever said humanity was logical?" Taylor replied.

"No one." Nimoy said.

"Come on, everyone," Taylor said, shifting the subject. "We are fortunate to have George and Gracie here, upstairs, they are the only two whales raised in captivity."

"I am always fascinated how they were to do that as they were calfs until adulthood." Spock Prime mused.

"Humanity should never be underestimated when it comes to saving other species." McCoy Prime said.

"That they should not be." Spock Prime said.

There were people of different ethnicity among the crowd: Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, and so on. Some of them were young people, some of them were middle aged, and a few of them were old. The group went up with some using the rails as their guide. Nimoy was interested in the whales in some ways that was as though he was curious if there was a possibility whales could communicate with aliens. McCoy Prime was doing his part by not reacting when the group left Spock Prime with the whales. _Jim must have been unaware what Spock was doing the first time around_ , McCoy Prime thought as water squirted out of the whales hole.

"Beautiful." A Mexican man said, looking on toward the large bodies of mass disappearing into the water body.

"That they are." A woman with brown hair remarked.

McCoy Prime saw the look of fascination and hope on Taylor's face.

Taylor patted on Gracie, talking, passionately about the whales. She was making the impression of a 'nice woman' toward McCoy Prime, Jim could have hooked up with Taylor Prime. Taylor Prime and Taylor were identical. Splitting images. But then again, meeting Kirk of this time would have taken much longer and required work to make them meet. Taylor Prime had complimented Jim as a 'great kisser' which could be true to his counterpart. Her hands went back and forth on the whales side smoothly and systematically. The whales probably liked it when she did it.

Too bad they were going to leave tonight.

But they can't beam the whales up now due to the dillithium requiring to repair itself.

The group turned away from the whales then proceeded to return in the direction they came.

McCoy Prime nodded in the direction of Spock Prime.

"Prosthetics cannot stand being in the water," McCoy Prime said. "And the wig will break."

"Fascinating, wigs breaking apart because of water contamination . . ." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime followed after the group. Shatner asked a few questions to Taylor regarding the whales. And some other people did too, undoubtedly curious, but more so about the sake of the whales when they were released into the wild. McCoy Prime didn't want to draw attention from onlookers so he purposely followed the crowd. They were going to somehow rope in Taylor much like the two friends did originally. McCoy Prime suggested it would be best to openly talk about how the mind meld went after Taylor noticed what was going on.

Shatner gasped, covering one side of his face then over to his mouth seeing Spock Prime swimming toward the whales.

Nimoy raised his eyebrows, jaw slightly dropped, and a 'what the hell?' expression on his face.

A few other people had puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Then why is there a man swimming with the whales?" Came a Mexican older woman.

Taylor turned around.

"What the hell?" Taylor said.

Spock Prime was conducting a mind meld, effortlessly, with Gracie.

"He is swimming with the whales," Shatner said. "He has . . . . strange guts."

"Wait here!" Taylor said, darting away.

"Miss Taylor, we can explain!" McCoy Prime went after her drawing the two men's attention in his direction.

Nimoy and Shatner recognized McCoy Prime as their co-star, from the upcoming _Galaxy Quest_ episode, DeForest Kelly.

"De?" Shatner and Nimoy said.

"'We'?" Taylor turned her head in the direction of McCoy Prime with disgust. "Are you from the military? Are you trying to mess with my whales?"

"They are not your whales," McCoy Prime said. "And second of all, no."

"But they are my whales," Taylor said. "I raised them-"

"From the time they were calf's and you had been with them every step of the way," McCoy Prime said. "Of course, Whales probably appreciate that kind of motherly kindness from a human . . . . but, you have not bought them or owned them. That means they were everyone's whales durin' their great extinction. Tonight George and Gracie are leavin' without your knowledge, so talk to me later when you are not angry about Gracie bein' touched."

McCoy Prime left the woman being stunned then went up the stairs with his hands curled up into a ball. Taylor was frozen in place standing at the staircase processing what had been said. He out the door toward Spock Prime who put on the dark jacket, zipped it up, and cleaned his gray hair with a towel that had randomly came out of no-where. The Vulcan cleaned his ears as well then put on the prosthetic ears. Spock Prime looked in the direction of his friend who appeared to be in a sour mood.

"I change my mind about bringin' Taylor," McCoy Prime said. "Let's use the whale song later instead of usin' her frequency to find them."

"Possessive over the whales?" Spock Prime asked.

"Don't know how Jim could stand her!" McCoy Prime said. "Did they accept?"

"Gladly," Spock Prime said. "But. . ."

"But?" McCoy Prime raised an eyebrow as the Vulcan put on the forehead prosthetic.

"Gracie is not pregnant." Spock Prime replied.

". . . Oh shit." McCoy Prime said.

"But George is." Spock Prime said, casually.

"Wait, what?" McCoy Prime said.

"George is pregnant." Spock Prime said.

"How is that. . . ." McCoy Prime said, lost. "Male whales cannot birth a baby whale!"

"I am well aware of that fact." Spock Prime said.

"You are not sayin' George is goin' to need help deliverin' a calf." McCoy Prime said.

"I am indeed saying that George needs help in one week, two days, four hours, and thirty-two minutes," Spock Prime replied. "Or else he will die."

"Damn nature," McCoy Prime said, looking over to see some security guards at the doors with hands on their holsters looking around. "Spock, we better get goin': now."

Spock Prime looked over in the direction that McCoy Prime is looking toward.

"This is unlike how it went the first time around," Spock Prime said. "But I can distract them. It has been . . . too long since I did this."

"Do what?" McCoy Prime Prime said.

"Best you do not know." Spock Prime said, going right past the older man.

"I have every right to know if you are losin' logic, Spock!" McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime approached a young man then he tapped on his shoulder and engaged in a conversation that could not be heard by McCoy Prime. The man looked over toward the water with a dazed look about his face. The man went past Spock Prime and past the doctor. The doctor then realized what the man is about to do. The man jumped into the water. The security guards went into the water after the young man. Spock Prime and McCoy Prime both went out the doors.

"Oh my god!" A middle aged woman said, gasping.

"Jim would be laughin' in his grave if he knew what you did." McCoy Prime said.

"I am certain he is." Spock Prime said.

Taylor ran right past him.

"WHAT IS THAT MAN DOING WITH MY WHALES?"

"Ma'm, he is swimming with them!"

"Get him out of there!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

The doors closed behind the two, while they whistled acting innocent, as the security officer dived into the water. Our scene went down to the area where Shatner and Nimoy stood to see there being a man clung to the back of George, smiling, enjoying a good cling on. A second security officer went down then they grabbed the man by the arms and swam up to the surface leaving George with Gracie. There were unexpected gasps that escaped the group of on-seers. Shatner had a 'what the hell' expression on his face while Nimoy had amusement. Our perspective returns to the two older friends headed toward the exit doors where a police officer and the same rock punk from earlier came.

"And that's the old geezer who punched me in the face!" The punk rocker said.

Spock Prime stopped in his tracks looking over in the direction they were going right by a stand.

"He doesn't look so old for a healthy man." The officer said.

"The old geezer fooled me at first!" The punk rocker said.

Spock Prime's hearing was still intact, sharp, keen, and clear as ever.

"Spock?" McCoy Prime said, sounding concerned.

"The rude human is lying, and is accusing my counterpart of punching him at the face." Spock Prime took off the prosthetic ears, put them into his pocket, then headed in the direction of the crowd.

"Spock, don't go in there!" McCoy Prime said, taking the Vulcan by the shoulder. "I know you have a guilty conscience but humans don't see Vulcans until 2063!"

"Wulcans?" Spock Prime said, raising an gray eyebrow. "What Wulcans?"

McCoy Prime's grip loosened.

". . . I see what you are doing there," McCoy Prime said, letting go of Spock Prime's shoulder. "I will be outside."

The two split.

"I never punched that young man." Nimoy said.

"Yes, you did!" The punk rocker said.

"If Leonard punched you at the face then you would have a black eye." Shatner said.

"I did not punch you at the face, as my friend Bill attests, and it is highly illogical that I could fly from one end of the bus to the other end then project myself back into my seat without upsetting the passengers. Your 'music',however, had bee bothering many of the passengers. Whoever punched you at the face relieved everyone and I recall it was the most pleasant thirty-three minutes I had on a crowded bus."

"Sir, why did you punch him?" The officer asked.

"Don't answer that without a lawyer." Shatner said.

"My apologies," Spock Prime said. "I was the one who nerve pinched him. Not Mr Nimoy." Their attention turned toward him with raised eyebrows staring at his pointy ears. "I am from Russia."

"That's the man who punched me!" The punk rocker said.

"I did not certainly punch you," Spock Prime said. "My name is Capacitiov Spauwk. You may call me 'mister Spauwk'. I have a rare genetic disorder that makes me have pointy ears much like Whicans from a upcoming episode of _Galaxy Quest_ featuring Commander Mister Spuawk and Lieutenant Commander Kurk."

Shatner's jaw dropped.

"That is a very unusual Russian name, Mister Spauwk." The officer said.

"Indeed," Spock Prime said. "Would you like to be an example, officer?"

"Sure." The officer said.

The officer fell to the ground shortly after being nerve pinched. The punk rocker screamed dropping his boombox then fainted falling over landing on the ground. Spock Prime had a fond smile looking over in the direction of Shatner who was staring at the Vulcan, in shock. Alive, it brought fond memories of their many missions back to the elderly Vulcan. The shocked look turned into confusion as Shatner looked over toward Nimoy then back to Spock Prime then back to Nimoy and then to Spock Prime. Nimoy was looking at Spock Prime in fascination and intrigue as the crowd moved around the two bodies on the floor. The boombox broke into pieces.

"Live long and prosper, Mister Shatner." Spock put on the prosthetic pair of ears over his pointy ones.

Nimoy watched the 'Russian' pointy eared old man leave.

"He must be from a Alternate Universe where I portrayed Mister Spauwk." Nimoy said, as they walked out of the crowd.

"Did you see the way he looked at me?" Shatner asked.

"Very fondly." Nimoy said.

"Maybe he lost his Lieutenant Commander Kurk due to a Space Pirate attack out for the Berrylium Sphere-wait, I just got an idea! How about _Galaxy Trek_?" Shatner snapped his fingers. "That would make a good movie!"

"Why would Space Pirates want to kill the Lieutenant Commander?" Nimoy asked. "It is simply illogical."

"Good point, Len," Shatner said. "Maybe . . . He and Mister Spauwk stood in the way along with the bridge crew from taking over the ship to get it."

"I believe there is some potential in that." Nimoy said.

"We should totally cast a black man or woman for the communications part." Shatner said.

"And the pilot?" Nimoy asked.

"I don't know, yet. . . Are you interested in this?" Shatner asked.

"Frankly, meeting your persona with my face is intriguing." Nimoy said.

Shatner found himself grinning, widely.

"It is only logical." Shatner said.

"Precisely." Nimoy said.

"And we will need to hire writers and get some legitimate insights on science fiction," Shatner said, rubbing his two fingers together. "Realistically."

"Are they okay?" The Mexican older woman asked, looming over the two bodies.

"They probably are experiencing shock." A man in his mid-twenties said.

"From what?" A middle aged man said.

"Aliens." Shatner said.

"Aliens do not exist." The middle aged man said.

"Aliens in fact exist." Shatner argued back.

The middle aged man frowned.

"No, they don't."

"How can you be so sure of yourself?"

"I just spoke with one pretending to be a human."

"Well,Mr-wait, you were in a episode from _The Man from UNCLE_!"

"What was it like to act with Johnathan McCallum?"

"SIGN MY PAPER!"

". . . I will wait outside." Nimoy left Shatner.

"HEY, YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE MY BACK UP!" Shatner shouted after his friend.

* * *

"WE NEED A DOCTOR!" Came a frightened scream.

When Spock Prime walked out of the institute, he could see there was a crowd going around the center of the road. Something obviously had happened. McCoy Prime headed in that direction taking a hypospray out of the dark knapsack around his shoulder. Spock Prime followed in the direction but came to the side of the crowd.

"I am a doctor!" McCoy Prime shouted. "Out of my way! Move it! Please, thank you, pardon me, move your damn foot out of the way. I am a doctor, not a civilian!"

McCoy Prime moved people of the way as he made his way to the scene. There was a child laid on the ground, bleeding, with a woman covering a wound on his shoulder appearing to be panicked. He was horrified to see what he saw. No wonder humanity had stagnation in advancing itself in the beginning. It was a wonder humanity survived the 20th century, that McCoy Prime agreed on, a miracle that not everyone died during this time.

McCoy Prime knelt down to the boy's side then he hypoed the boy at the neck.

The boy's eyes closed and his heart rate was normal, as typical, for a anaesthetic.

"Don't call the ambulance," McCoy Prime said. "He will be fine."

He took out a device from the bag and put it on the apparent injuries. The woman looked up toward the doctor confused but horrified. "Just wait a few minutes." He put away the hypo, took a scanner, scanned the boy reading what was being relayed on the device. "Beginning of lung cancer in the chest. Easily can be taken care of." He took a pill out of the bag and then took out a hypospray that was uniquely designed for a all too different purpose. There was beeps coming from the device on the boy. Nimoy had joined the crowd witnessing this event occurring.

"What are you doin'?" The mother asked.

"Healin' him," McCoy Prime said. "Leonard McCoy, Doctor McCoy." He put the square shaped device on the boy's wrist that made a low squeal but more so of a hiss when it met contact with the skin and he put away the hypospray. "I highly recommend he does not ride a bicycle for the next few days. Bones needs time to harden over the repairs. Three at most. He will need to hitch a ride, and, he should also sleep on his side for the injured thigh to get itself worked out back the way it was before for next two nights." He looked over toward the woman. "No one is goin' to believe this story. But he'll be fine. Do I have your permission to cure him?"

The woman tearfully nodded as there was a beep coming from the device.

McCoy Prime carefully took off the devices then put them away and remarkably there was no bone exposed. The woman gasped seeing her son healed, fine, and not injured. He put the hypospray into the boy's neck and took the hypo out shortly there after. The boy's eyes slowly opened to see his mother looming right over him concerned and a family relative right beside her.

"Mom, why are you lookin' at me that way?" The boy finally asked.

"Robert James McCoy, don't you dare run into traffic again!" The mother scolded him.

McCoy Prime stopped himself from freezing in place and stiffening at a familiar name.

"Take this," McCoy Prime handed the boy the pill. "And swallow it,immediately."

The boy swallowed the pill.

"Grandpa?" Robert asked. "Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be in a nursin' home?"

McCoy Prime got up looking over toward the woman.

"Jessie Amster," Jessie, being the mother, said. "Thank you, doctor. I am in your debt."

"Do me a favor and forget about this." McCoy Prime said.

Jessie nodded.

"Yes, doctor." Jessie said.

McCoy Prime stood up then he joined Spock Prime leaving the scene. Jessie brought the boy into a hug, thankful for the angel from heaven saving her little boy.

"Leonard?" Spock Prime said.

"I just fulfilled a family secret." McCoy Prime said.

"And what is that?" Spock Prime asked.

"One of my great grandfather's was a reckless kid and got hit," McCoy Prime said. "A doctor came and saved his life on the spot with strange devices. I did not realize that I just took part in it until she mentioned him by name!" Spock Prime raised an eyebrow. "They were visitin' San Fransisco that week. He had scans of a developing cancer in his lungs. His father smoked a lot. Gave him ten years. But after that accident? He lived up until he was ninety-two. He was cured of cancer. Afterwards, my great grandfather's father grilled her on what the good doctor said. She couldn't tell him, she refused, because he wouldn't believe her. Years later, she finally told my great-great-great grandfather that a angel saved him. His guardian angel. His father insisted that it was a descendant from the future."

"What was the father's name?" Spock Prime said.

"Daniel Horatio McCoy," McCoy Prime said. "I was named after him."

"Your great great great great grandparents were religious, as it seems." Spock Prime said.

"My great great great great grand mother was," McCoy Prime said. "Daniel wasn't much religious. He relied off facts. In fact he was a scientist working to cure cancer." McCoy Prime had a shrug. "But he was much of a man interested in time travel. In 2005 he attempted it, in Gettysburg, but never came back."

"Gettysburg?" Spock Prime said.

"Claimed there was a highly active portal there due to the restless spirits and the bloodshed." McCoy Prime said.

"Hm, troubling." Spock Prime said.

"Could there be a possibility that he succeeded in time travel?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Possibly," Spock Prime replied. "He would have become his own ancestor if he had." _The scene of Daniel arriving in the middle of a battlefield appeared, he was confused,fascinated, but otherwise frightened standing there from a safe distance_. "If he appeared in the middle of a battle, he might as well be dead."

 _Daniel fled on foot finding everything different, and he got shot at the back, later he was brought to a house where a woman nursed him back to health, they chat, his hands graze hers, and their eyes meet and he introduces himself as 'Daniel Horatio McCoy' thanking her for her service. It is only later when he plans to leave do they fall for each other, become engaged, work through the hard times, get shot (again), get married, have children, and apparently Daniel dies at a old age protecting his five children (who flee on foot with their mother later from the attack). One of the little girls were named John Amster._

"That is logical." McCoy Prime said.

"But I find it probable that he indeed live and might have lived longer than he would have in this time." Spock Prime said.

"People in this time lived to fifty and their eighties." McCoy Prime said.

"It is the environment that matters, Leonard." Spock Prime said.

"Oh really?" McCoy Prime raised an eyebrow.

"Hundreds of years ago, people lived for centuries," Spock Prime said. "I recall there being a skeleton being discovered that indicated he was a teenager, a middle aged man, a adult, and a middle aged man. His bones were dated to have live five hundred years in the time prior. With his position that he was found in, it is logical that he died at rest in his sleep. There are some debates he died of old age when his body indicates he was healthy as a god."

"The ice man." McCoy Prime said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime looked at Spock Prime, strangely.

"Did we have this conversation before?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Negative." Spock Prime said.

"I swear we did." McCoy Prime said.

"If we had, I would have remembered," Spock Prime said. "You are experiencing a chemical imbalance for a event that never happened."

"So a fake De ja-vu. . . that makes sense." McCoy Prime said. "Spock . . . I am not surprised that I saw you and Jim's counterparts friends in this timeline even without being a hybrid and a human, you two seem to stick together like thieves. Friends in any walks of life."

"They are T'hy'las." Spock Prime said.

"Purely platonic this time around." McCoy Prime said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime nodded.

"Now. . . how do we get that calf delivered after our return home?" McCoy Prime said.

"I am assured there are machines capable of doing the delivery with George not in pain and with Gracie nearby, the calf should be able to nurse with the female shortly afterwards. Every animal, capable of nursing, will take the young under their wing except for the animal class they are in and their species."

"So animals that walk on four legs and with two fins can nurse any orphan?" McCoy Prime said

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"He needs surgery and Gracie will take care of the Calf." McCoy Prime said.

"Theoretically, it is highly possible." Spock Prime said.

There was a pause between the two as a question came into the doctor's head.

"Spock, did you meet the two counterparts the first time around?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Negative." Spock Prime said.

"I would have thought you did." There was a beep from McCoy Prime's pocket, vibrating, really.

Spock Prime looked ahead to see two joggers chatting coming their direction not paying any at the least attention to their surroundings much like the walking civilians.

"It appears no one is paying attention." Spock Prime noted.

"Stuark, what is it?" McCoy Prime said.

"I have beamed Speller aboard the Enterprise. Mr Scott and Chekov are buying some 'keepsakes' at a local mall. Mr Scott will help in the placing of the tank. Sulu is practicing to fly the Heuy," Stuark said. "Mr Sulu's progress report indicates he will be flying the tank over in a hour. Mr Scott and Mr Chekov will be beamed over in twenty-two minutes and thirty seconds."

"Good," McCoy Prime said. "We may or may not have a professional cetacean biologist when we get there. We will take a ride back."

"Staurk out." Stuark said.

McCoy Prime closed the communicator.

"Do you want to visit the zoo,Spock?" McCoy Prime asked.

"I never visited a zoo." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime smiled.

"Well," McCoy Prime said. "This is your first."

"First time is the charm." Spock Prime said.

* * *

Taylor's boss, Bob Briggs, had a short lived conversation with her. The conversation was short lived regarding the whales intelligence. Taylor decided to take a short drive that lasted for two hours and thirty-six minutes. She heard familiar voices mixed with laughter. She looked over to see the same two old men from earlier laughing, openly, with the more two piece suited man holding cotton candy in one hand. The other had a icecream cone coated in two layers that had a wrapping around the cone. The second man was not in a jumpsuit unlike the first man. They were, happy, with one another. Like a old married couple. Completely comfortable with the other.

"Spock, you have some cotton candy on your chin." McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime flicked the cotton candy off then licked the blue cloud like part off his index finger feeling a sensationalizing jolt. His pupils, briefly, were dilated and his cheeks briefly were a shade of green. Taylor slowed down the truck staring in the illogical and surreal sight of a man's cheeks turning a shade of green naturally. The skin color of people changing to green either meant they are sick or aliens. Martians were known to have green skin. Her jaw fell and her eyebrows furrowed down forwards. The shade of green vanished from Spock Prime's cheeks.

 _What the hell?,_ Taylor thought.

"Are you aliens?" Taylor asked.

That gave them good pause, sharing a glance to one another, then the two men debated and argued. They had not stopped in their tracks, so, they kept walking with the woman tailing after them. In Taylor's opinion it was rather heated but according to those around those two men it was everything being civil. McCoy Prime licked the icecream cone listening to Spock Prime's side of the argument on rather to bring her or not to face her 'extremely possessive attitude' regarding whales and how rude she might be toward 23rd century people like McCoy Prime who were trying to help. McCoy Prime turned his head in the direction of Taylor.

"Depends if you want the damn ugly truth." McCoy Prime said.

" _That_?" Taylor asked.

"Take it or leave it, Miss Taylor." Spock Prime replied, glaring at her direction as well.

"And if you want to drive us to where we need to be, yes." McCoy Prime added.

"I want the truth," Taylor said. "How about I take care of two birds with one stone? I can take you where you need to be and I get to know you are dipshitting me."

"We are not dipshittin' you." McCoy Prime said.

"Gladly." Spock Prime said.

Taylor stopped the car, Spock Prime tossed the empty stick into a trash can and McCoy Prime was busy still licking that icecream cone. Spock Prime went in first then McCoy Prime. McCoy Prime shut the door holding the icecream cone out the window making sure not to drip it on the car as though it could have gone with them to the future. Spock Prime buckled himself in, and so did McCoy Prime carefully even with a hand holding a dripping icecream cone. His hand was freezing so he took the cone by his left hand.

"What are you?" Taylor asked. "Military personnel? Area 51 enthusiasts? Area 51 lab experiments?"

Spock Prime had a insulted expression on his face at the last part.

"I am from the 23rd century and I am not of your world," Spock Prime said. "Not man made, Miss Taylor. Even though I am a hybrid. . ."

"Hybrid?" Taylor said.

"Half human, half alien as someone would put it." Spock Prime said.

"You don't look alien." Taylor said.

Spock Prime looked over toward McCoy Prime.

"Should I, Leonard?" Spock Prime asked.

"Show the ears, but not those eyebrow," McCoy Prime said. "Not until we get back to the ship."

McCoy Prime was holding his hand out catching the droplets of icecream and licking it, with difficulty. Spock Prime took the prosthetics off his ears then looked off into Taylor's direction and including his wig. The forehead part did not look prosthetic. In fact, it blended in with his face making him appear utterly human. Spock Prime turned his head in the direction of Taylor.

"We are from the 23rd century," Spock Prime said. "And Gracie is not pregnant."

"I know that." Taylor said.

"George is." Spock Prime said.

Taylor stopped the truck with a screech making McCoy Prime toss the icecream out the window where it landed on the helmet of a passing bicyclist. Taylor turned her head in the direction of the Vulcan flabbergasted and her jaw dropped. McCoy Prime had smacked his hand against the rim of the window and quite aching. The doctor took out a hypospray that was square and small, white with a small blue glowing screen, then applied it to his wrist. He rubbed his wrist then put the hypospray away.

"How do you know that?" Taylor asked. "No one knows that!"

"George told me." Spock Prime said.

"He . . . just told you?" Taylor asked.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime replied.

Taylor just laughed.

"And why do you need whales for some time travelers?" Taylor said. "I figured that out earlier. But the whales, why?"

McCoy Prime looked up.

"Because right as you speak, we are losin' precious time to save Earth from a probe that is vaporizin' Earth's oceans searchin' for whales to communicate with. Illogical, I know!" McCoy Prime said. "But it worked the first time around. You were a well known and renowned celebrity in the future teachin' our 23rd century about whales that we did not know. You helped in the repopulation of the species after our return. If we do not get back to Earth with those whales we are. . . unforunetly. . .Earth will be _destroyed_. Star Fleet would be crippled to pieces. Humans would be a endangered race. A war of the ages would go . . ." His voice lowered. "In fact . . ." He sighed looking over toward Taylor. "Without them, our friends have no future."

There was silence in the truck as she stared at him.

"Imagine a utopia with aliens and humans working together," Spock Prime said, ending the silence. "A bright future that needs to be ensured by George and Gracie. We can help in the delivery with the finest doctors we have."

"I would not want to be one of those doctors." McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime looked over toward McCoy Prime.

"Leonard," Spock Prime started as the doctor was licking his fingers off the icecream from his hand. "There is a one hundred percent chance that your counterpart will be part of it."

"That will be his first surgery on a large animal." McCoy Prime said.

"Who are you two?" Taylor asked.

The two men turned their heads in her direction.

"Rear Admiral Leonard McCoy," McCoy Prime said. "I am a doctor."

"Ambassador Spock," Spock Prime said. "But since we are from an alternate universe, I believe you may prefer to refer to the doctor, to spare yourself mental confusion on how to defianciate the other, McCoy Prime. If you prefer."

"There is two of you?" Taylor said.

"Don't you get the word 'Prime'?" McCoy Prime asked.

"It means 'Main' or 'of great importance'." Taylor said.

"We originate from the main timeline," Spock Prime said. "Got here different ways."

"So I can mentally call you Ambassador Spock and you McCoy Prime?" Taylor asked.

"Yes." The men said, at once.

"And we just call everyone else, in our minds, 'other/younger Jim', 'Other/younger Spock', 'Other Sulu','Other Chekov','Other Scotty'," McCoy Prime said. "If you do not prefer to refer to us by the name 'other' mentally . . . ." Taylor was baffled looking at them. "You are more than welcome to take our suggestions."

"Do you have nicknames?" Taylor said.

"Bones." McCoy Prime said.

"Mister Spock." Spock Prime asked.

"That is not a nickname, Spock!" McCoy Prime said. "It is a formal greetin'."

"Spocky?" Spock Prime said.

"You do know how inappropriate that is." McCoy Prime said.

"We both know it was Jim's idea." Spock Prime said.

"That is for affection, both of us know that," McCoy Prime said. "So that wouldn't be a nickname everyone could call you!"

"Good point. . ." Spock Prime said, then he held his fingers out. "The doctor has many nicknames he refers to me as: pointy eared, computer, hobgoblin, Vulcan, green blooded, icicle-"

"Those are insults!" McCoy Prime said.

"Hm?" Spock Prime said. "I could not tell."

McCoy Prime glared at the Vulcan with a frown.

". . . Damn it, Spock," McCoy Prime said. "You took everything regarding your Vulcanian side with stride and compliments."

"That is because they were true." Spock Prime said.

"Are you two. . . um. . . married?" Taylor asked.

Spock Prime raised an eyebrow, in disbelief, at her question. The same disbelief on McCoy Prime's face.

"Negative. We are soul brothers, nothing more." Spock Prime said.

"Got that right," McCoy Prime said. "If you want to see our ship. . . It is at the Golden Gate Park, a bit invincible."

"Invincible?" Taylor said.

"Affirmative," Spock Prime said. "Armed with a cloaking device. We are currently repairing what fuels the cloak."

"Let me guess, you two served on the same spaceship." Taylor said.

"It was a starship." The two men said.

"So a _star_ ship." Taylor said.

"And it was more of a home than Earth was," Spock Prime said. "Most of the senior officers were like family."

"But the family . . . we will die before they do." McCoy Prime's voice had lowered.

"That must be sad." Taylor had resumed driving during the conversation.

"Indeed." Spock Prime said.

"And it is likely you out live everyone, Ambassador Spock." Taylor said.

"One hundred sixty nine." Spock Prime said.

"You look like a ninety-year old!" Taylor said.

"Thank you." Spock Prime said.

"But that . . . wasn't. . . ." Taylor was left dumbstruck.

"He is a Vulcan," McCoy Prime said. "Get used to it."

"How did you get used to it?" Taylor asked.

"He is my friend," McCoy Prime said. "We have served alongside each other for years. We saved each others lives more than once."

"Forty-eight thousand two hundred thirty-eight times." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime smiled.

"Add two thousand to that and you get a number for how many times he saved the captain's life and the captain saved his." McCoy Prime said.

"Negative, it is fifty-five thousand two hundred times." Spock Prime said.

"That was remarkably close." McCoy Prime said.

"Tell me about your missions." Taylor said.

"Would you like to hear the first?" McCoy Prime asked.

"Yes." Taylor said.

"With the amount of time, I believe I can tell you ten to fifteen." Spock Prime said.

"I was not on the first mission for the _Enterprise_ ," McCoy Prime said. "But Spock was. And so was Captain Pike."

"Before Pike was a fleet captain, he was a captain of one unit. One starship. The _Enterprise_. Doctor Mark Piper was the Chief Medical Officer of the _Enterprise_. In 2254,back then our uniforms were made of wool and were sweaters. Captains back then wore hats, which was illogical to wear a hat inside a starship and I refused to wear one due to the illogicallity of it. I would often find my skin with allergic reactions, skin turning green, marks appearing on my wrists, and immobility of my fingers. So I treated myself to epis that lasted up to twenty-four hours. . . ." Spock Prime explained.

* * *

". . .And then we were beamed back aboard the Enterprise." Spock Prime finished the mission.

A pair of joggers ran by the truck.

"This is it!" McCoy Prime said.

Taylor came to a sharp stop with McCoy Prime grabbing onto the emergency handle alongside the window.

"I don't see a starship." Taylor said, as Spock took off his prosthetics.

"Like the doctor informed you earlier," Spock Prime said. "It is cloaked."

McCoy Prime unbuckled himself and so did the Vulcan.

". . . Those. . . eyebrows. . ." Taylor said, staring at Spock Prime with shock.

"It is your choice if you want to go," McCoy Prime said. "Taylor Prime served on a starship nestled with Vulcans on a science vessel . . ." There was a long look on McCoy Prime's face. "There are not enough Vulcans to serve Star Fleet anymore in this timeline. If anythin', all the remaining' Vulcans asides to younger Spock are on New Vulcan rebuildin' their civilization. Best way to compare it is to the Holocaust and everythin' of the Jew culture was lost but on a greater scale. Billions. A entire planet destroyed."

"The future is a dark place, is it not?" Taylor said, in a low voice

"The future use to be a bright star, and it could still be bright," Spock Prime said. "Metaphorically."

McCoy Prime opened the door.

"Have you done this before?" Taylor said. "Like, talking to me in this truck?"

"This is my first." McCoy Prime said.

"I have, and you asked me if I would bother to change my mind and I asked why would I want to change the one I have right now." Spock Prime said.

"And Jim said that was a joke." McCoy Prime said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

The two shared a smile.

"Who is Jim?" Taylor asked.

Their smiles faded in the ensuing silence.

"My husband." Spock Prime looked over toward Taylor as McCoy Prime got out.

"My friend," McCoy Prime said, coming to the side of the truck. "A good friend. He was our captain for five years and more than that for thirty-four years."

Spock Prime got out of the truck.

"And Jim did . . . experiment . . . with Taylor Prime," Spock Prime said. "Our marriage was open."

Taylor's jaw dropped.

"Yes, they had an open marriage," McCoy Prime said. "Not surprising."

"How could you. . . stand him kissing other women?" Taylor asked.

"When a woman is interested with sleeping with my actively sexual partner," Spock Prime said. "I have learned to let him take advantage of that either on missions or on his own impulse. We did not get married by human terms until 2290 shortly after he broke up with Taylor Prime," Spock Prime shut the door. "She crushed his heart in ways that I can only say made him uninterested in dating women. But his support for them never wavered."

". . . So the . . other. . . you is married?" Taylor asked.

"Negative. They are only friends and brothers," Spock Prime said. "Much like the doctor and I are."

"Purely platonic." McCoy Prime said.

"Let me think about it," Taylor said. "About going with you to the future."

"Take all the time you want," McCoy Prime said. "We will be leaving when it is daylight to catch those whales once the repairs are finished."

"Tomorrow then?" Taylor said.

"Affirmative." The two men said.

Taylor drove away.

"How do you know that the whales will be taken without her knowledge?" Spock Prime asked as they turned away.

"She wrote a book about it." McCoy Prime said.

The two old men headed toward the starship.

"I was unaware of that." Spock Prime said.

McCoy Prime's stomach grumbled.

"At least we have Vulcan lunch packs on the ship." McCoy Prime said, as red, yellow, and orange bands appeared around them a they walked away from the road vanishing in a colorful haze.

* * *

Taylor did not want to believe the whales will be taken without her knowledge. She awoke on the bed with a start slamming her hand on the wailing alarm clock. But the sight of a old man with gray hair, pointy ears, and unusual eyebrows from last night stood out to her. She took a long good shower, dried herself out, prepared herself for the day, made breakfast, and then cleaned her dish.

She looked over toward the window to see it was morning.

She was skeptical at best. Perhaps this Ambassador Spock had recently got surgery to make him look this way and wear disguises to fool everyone that he looked completely fine not articulately well done to appear like an alien ripped out of the TV shows. She tied her shoe laces and let the cat out. There was no cat door for her cat. Her future was even not as bright as many people would think. Her entire life was devoted to the whales and people wanted those whales out of the sanctuary. She wanted to say good bye first and then her entire life would go to hell. Because shortly afterwards the institute would close without living whales to be part of the display.

Finding a job would be her next priority after the whales were released.

Sales clerk, tour guide, animal handler, and so on.

Taylor got into the truck.

" _The future use to be a bright star, and it could still be bright."_ She recalled.

The Ambassador had said the future was utopia in some sense.

Would that mean: no money? no starvation? no crimes?

George would surely die without intervention.

When it was discovered that he was pregnant, there was mixed reaction from the institute: shock, horror, fear, joy, and happiness.

George was a miracle and they did not know how Gracie was the one who had not become pregnant. It was spell binding. They decided not to tell anyone because if everyone knew then the scientists would be flocking over and people would request the animal be put down for its sake since a procedure to remove the calf was impossible. But it could be possible in the future that the doctor and the ambassador came from. She drove the truck down the road thinking about yesterday. She never seen old men that close before in her life. Usually when two old men were best friends they wouldn't bicker like a old married couple or seem like one. The only closest to a married old couple, at least in her mind, that she had seen from two old men were the _Odd Couple_ the 1968 movie.

Taylor arrived to the institute clearing her mind.

Taylor parked her truck, unbuckled herself, and then exited the vehicle.

A deep fear settled into her mind. No, wait, she had a bad feeling. Something did not feel right. She went past a visitor heading up the stairs, her heart began to race, her thoughts scattered, and then she went out the doors. She ran to the rail-side of the sight. She saw there was not a body of water outside the institute nor was there the signs of a humpback whales. There was what seemed to be a stream of water around the various sized rocks. Horror took over her body. Fear also did too. Her mind went back to yesterday.

" _Tonight George and Gracie are leavin' without your knowledge_."

Bob came over to Taylor.

"We had to avoid a mob scene with the press last night." Bob said.

"So you took them away without letting me say goodbye?" Taylor asked.

"We felt it would be easier for you." Bob said.

Taylor slapped him at the face.

"You son of a bitch!" Taylor said, tearfully.

"I did it for you." Bob said, rubbing the side of his cheek.

"You did it for yourself!" Taylor said. "Goodbye,boss, I am going to the future! Maybe there I will be appreciated more."

Taylor went back into the building, this time, however, running.

* * *

"The dillithium has been repaired, Rear Admiral." Came Scotty's voice over the comn.

"Thank you for the information, Scotty," McCoy Prime said. "McCoy out."

"Declipping landing gear." Sulu reported, as the starship's landing gear up underneath the side into their respective compartments.

Our view goes outside of the starship where wind started to become unsettled. Taylor came to a abrupt stop seeing some joggers fallen back landing ontop of one another. She yanked her seatbelt off feeling panic circulating through her body. She slammed the door shut with a loud smack.

"DOCTOR MCCOY!" Taylor shouted, fighting against the wind pulling her back. "I DECIDED! I WANT TO GO TO THE FUTURE! I CAN HELP! DOCTOR! DOCTOR! I CAN HELP YOU FIND THE WHALES FASTER!"

Suddenly she could see red, orange, and yellow bands circulating around her fingers and her arms.

"Oh my gooood!" Taylor screeched.

In a inferno flash Taylor appeared in a dark room that was partially lit where a man, with graying hair, and a graying mustache smiled back at her. He was in a strange red uniform with a rank and insagnia with a pair of dark pants complimenting the color red. Alongside him was a young man with pointy ears, tilted upwards eyebrows, and a monk hair style. He looked like a younger version of Spock Prime if it were not for the distinctively different face.

"Welcome tae wonderland, Miss Taylor." Scotty Prime said.

Taylor stepped off the transporter pad feeling like her atoms had been everywhere and she nearly fell forwards until sh had balanced herself. She felt so wibbly-wobbly. Her mind was processing how she had been beamed transported aboard a starship. She could hear the hum of the starship as it departed the ground. Out of the door appeared a well dressed McCoy Prime, who had changed his attire, in 20th century like attire.

"I got sick the first time I used the damn old thin'," McCoy Prime admitted.

"It is real. . . all of it. . . real." Taylor said.

"Don't hurt Jim the same way you did the first time around, you hear?" McCoy Prime asked, rather darkly.

"I. . . I will." Taylor said.

* * *

The doors to the bridge opened where it was revealed to be a brighter shade of red illuminating the room.

"There are no jets inwestigating our departure." Chekov reported.

"All systems ready." Sulu said.

"Miss?" Speller said, drawing her attention. "What is the radio frequency?"

"401 Megahertz." Taylor said.

"Give us full impulse power, Mr Sulu." McCoy Prime said.

"It should take us twelve minutes to get to the Bering Sea." Sulu reported.

"Woah. . . a view screen. . ." Taylor said. "I only thought that was possible in TV shows."

"Needless to remind you but we are from the future." Spock Prime noted, setting in the calculations for the sling back home on the science console.

Even for aging, this Vulcan was still able to operate a console that he had not ever used before but technically he had long ago. The calculations were different due to the laws of physics in this universe. The weight of the bird of prey was also different including the design of it. His fingers were tapping on the screen. He did miss the old fashioned buttons on the console, that Spock Prime found himself missing. The _Bounty_ traveled, cloaked, through the clouds, over the city, toward the ocean. McCoy Prime had left to get a bottle of bourbon with glasses just for a celebration afterwards when they get the whales.

"What is that?" Taylor asked.

"A touch screen." Spock Prime replied.

". . .What is a touchscreen?" Taylor asked.

"You can do anything with a touch on a screen," Spock Prime said. "Sometimes they are called LED screens interchangably. Back in my day, we had buttons."

"Buttons." Taylor said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"Like keyboard buttons?" Taylor asked.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said.

"How easy it is going to get adjusting to this new era?" Taylor asked.

There was a pause as he looked over toward the young woman.

"It never gets easy." Spock Prime said.

"So for being from an alternate universe . . ." Taylor said. "How does it feel to watch your friends grow old again?"

"Minor differences, but alike in build and personality and character," Spock Prime said. "Mr Scott strikingly resembles my Mr Scott. It is like they are twins. Sulu and Sulu Prime look strikingly alike. Chekov and Chekov Prime are very, very different. Jim and Jim Prime . . . They yield a strong resemblance if not for their eyes. Leonard and Leonard Prime are . . . So different they could be different people if not for their DNA. Slight resemblance but it depends. Uhura and Uhura Prime, are in my opinion, two different people. They do not look the same."

"That is interesting." Taylor said.

Spock Prime nodded.

"My otherself and I . . . when he was younger. . . did not look alike." Spock Prime said.

"But the resemblance now is probably strong." Taylor noted.

"It is." Spock Prime said.

"But you didn't answer my question," Taylor said. "Ambassador."

"Nostalgia, and sad." Spock Prime said.

"Because they are not the people you knew inside and out." Taylor said.

"Affirmative." Spock Prime said, with a nod.

* * *

The whaling ship caught of George and Gracie gracing the ocean surface.

"Prepare for whaling!" Came the navigator speaking in different language.

The ocean breeze was cool as the water lapped against the boat.

The captain was at the steering wheel whistling away, merrily.

"Today is a merrily day," Captain Schwarzenegger said. "A merrily day for whaling."

The whales winded up the harpoons then put it into the machine that aimed at the whales. Today they were going to score big and they didn't have to worry about the whales going extinct because long as they were reproduced and the federal government stood in the way attempting to limit how many were killed: whaling was not going to become a extinct species. Not just yet. There were plenty of whales.

They came to a stop across from the whales.

"Ready," The machine was manned by two men. "Aim," The harpoon fires aimed at the whales. "FIRE!"

The harpoon collided with something metal in thin air falling down into the water shortly after a clatter.

"What the hell?" Schwarzenegger said.

Within minutes a bird like spaceship appear hovering above the water with a light aimed at the water body.

"GET US OUT OF HERE!" Came one of the whalers.

"TURN THE SHIP AROUND!" The second whaler screamed.

"I AM TURNING, I AM TURNING, I AM TURNING!" Schwarzenegger replied turning the ship around with the wheel.

The whaling ship turned away then went back in the direction it had came. The bright light coming from underneath the _Bounty_ vanished into thin air. The _Bounty_ tipped over slightly then regained its composure and headed off into space through the atmosphere. Once the whalers had returned home they would speak of a gigantic starship with wing shaped blades. Some would even composite the images and dub them 'Bird of Prey' due to their fierce look. William Shatner would come across this story then suggest to Nimoy regarding the enemy starships that could pop up in the first _Galaxy Trek_ movie to be called 'Hawk-of-predator'.

* * *

 _C-Clunk_

They were still on the _Bounty_ celebrating getting two whales aboard. The glasses were half full and the small group took a sip except for Staurk (who was at the phaser fire room practicing his aim, claimed he had gotten rusty with his aiming from lack of phaser firing in the past few years). There were laughs, joy, and happiness. Spock Prime had assured them they would still be able to get instantly back to the time they had left.

They had gotten out of Earth orbit and were taking a moment to themselves for a late celebration. Spock Prime, however, had laced chocolate into his drink of bourbon using a packet of chocolate. McCoy Prime was quite surprised to see the Vulcan experimenting with chocolate and bourbon earning only a "I have been experimenting with chocolate bourbon shortly after you original death." And that left McCoy Prime replying, "You toasted to me." which was stunning to hear from a Vulcan. Spock Prime had never done that before, ever, never in the time McCoy Prime had known him.

The celebration ended within an hour.

Scotty was with Taylor, observing the whales.

"Did you say goodbye tae your loved ones?" Scotty asked.

"I don't have anyone." Taylor said.

"Everyone has a friend tae worry about them." Scotty said.

"I only had a cat," Taylor said. "And a disrespectful boss."

"They seem tae be happy here." Scotty said.

"I hope they will be happy to not be in danger when we get to the future." Taylor said.

"I like tae bet my life they will." Scotty said.

"Prepare for impact," Came McCoy Prime's voice. "We are preparin' to slin' shot around the sun."

Our scene goes outside into space where we watch the _Bounty_ disappear around the sun.

* * *

"Jason," Shatner said. "You are not the only one."

Jason Nesmith and William Shatner were watching a game at a friend's house.

"What?" Nesmith looked over toward Shatner with a strange look on his face.

Fred had just left the room going over to his recently married wife Doe into the other room.

"You are not the only man who encountered an alien." Shatner said.

Nesmith had a bewildered look on his face.

"What are you talking about?" Nesmith asked.

"Your friend's wife, she is an alien," Shatner said. "Much like that evil green dude people have been rumored to pop up before the new millennia."

Nesmith frowned.

"No, she is very human." Nesmith said.

"Come on, it is very obvious!" Shatner said. "I mean I met two aliens and she is a nice girl, but, where would all that tentacles come from?"

"I do not know what you are talking about, Bill." Nesmith said.

"You asked me why we came back and started the _Galaxy Trek_ trilogy when it could flop." Shatner said.

"Yes, I did, and you never answered me." Nesmith said.

Shatner smiled.

"I met Mr Spauwk, but, he looked a lot like Len. He had pointy ears!" Shatner waved his hand. "And he was old. Like, easily over a hundred." He looked over toward the television then back toward Nesmith. "The reason why we did it because . . . The old man had emotion. And he was Russian. Russian became a handy plot-device in the second movie needless to say. Knowing he did, in fact, have emotion made it easier to portray Mister Spuawk. Everything that you know? The doctor named Larry McCall? He was based on a actual person named Leonard McCoy, a doctor! One from the future. Galaxy Fleet, hyposprays, prosthetics easily to slip on and off, they are all real." Nesmith shook his head appearing to be not convinced. "I actually wanted to tell you that. That is why I came over when you called for someone to hang out while watching this game. The first _Galaxy Trek_ movie is based on the encounter."

Nesmith turned his head in the direction of Shatner.

"The whales? Miss Tonya's disappearance?" Shatner nodded. "The two older men from a future in trouble? A doctor capable of healing with his hands alone? Sorry, don't buy it."

"The future in trouble part was a theory that Len concocted," Shatner said. "We have been pretty tight on what happened that day thinking no one would believe us . . . and since there were reports of a fallen starship we both decided that it was time for you to be told." Shatner picked up the beer. "And I am not going to say anything when you make a 'movie' about your experience. Also, I will totally deny I just told you what I did just say if anyone asks."

"Bill,what the hell is up with you?" Nesmith asked.

"Miss Tonya is based on Gillian Taylor," Shatner walked around the table. "And I like to think she is in the future."

Shatner showed himself out then he left the building.

Nesmith took out the Vox.

"Taggart to Mathesar." Nesmith said.

"Mathesar here!" Came a familiar voice. "What is it, Commander?"

"Commander Kurk knows." Nesmith said.

"Co-Commander of the NSEA _Stallion_!" There was what sounded to be a collective squeal.

* * *

Everyone awoke on the Bounty after the trip.

"When are we?" McCoy Prime asked.

The lights went out in the room.

"The probe." Speller said.

* * *

Cartwright looked out the shattered window seeing a falling Bird-Of-Prey heading directly for the Golden Gate Bridge but for some reason he didn't believe there would be Klingons or Romulans aboard that ship. One of their own was inside of it. He has had many famous gut feelings in his career and this one felt, oh god, this felt damn strong.

"There's a falling bird of prey heading for the bridge." Cartwright said.

"Klingons wouldn't just get arrive here just to be taken down by a simple prob-" Connor said, coming over and his eyes widened watching the starship sail under the bridge.

"I have a feeling there is not Klingons aboard that ship." Cartwright said.

The bird of prey crashed into the water.

* * *

Staurk awoke on the ground alongside the wall. His shoulder was stinging in pain. He had a rough landing, for sure. He made his way into the bridge where Spock Prime was helping up Speller to her feet, obviously in pain, and Sulu was opening the latch and McCoy Prime treated Chekov's fore arm that had a scrape with a small square device. He took it off after a second then looked over to see the Vulcan.

"Hurt?" McCoy Prime said.

"I am quite unharmed, Rear Admiral." Stuark said.

"You are hurt, and you are not falling into a healin' trance while standin'!" McCoy Prime said. "Out, now!"

Spock Prime went through the threshold taking the jacket off. McCoy Prime and the others went out making it to the top of the bird of prey. Two minutes later Scotty and Taylor joined them with Taylor appearing to be worried and scared. There was easily concern on the Scotsman's face. One that McCoy Prime had seen long ago on his old friend in the original timeline. McCoy Prime realized Spock Prime hadn't come out, yet.

"Where is the Ambassador?" McCoy Prime said.

"He is helping the whales." Taylor said.

"And he broke doors while he was openin' them, tae!" Scotty said.

McCoy Prime recalled there being a museum made out of the remainments of the bounty in 2300. It was made in the honor of the fallen, and greatest, Star Fleet captain there was. The original Enterprise bridge was installed in the holodeck for those to see including many rooms from the starship. McCoy Prime had personally visited the museum in 2300. He often wondered where they had kept the starship. McCoy Prime remembered that in the tour (he did this visit when no one knew he was there) the bridge was referred to as 'the place where history was made' and the transporter as 'the very first destination Gillian Taylor arrived meeting Admiral James T. Kirk'. The tank area was restored to what it had been with holographic humpback whales inside them. McCoy Prime put his right hand and the side of his face on the window feeling grief, almost as though, he could feel from the other side of the glass wall in time James T. Kirk was looking on with Taylor Prime and Scotty Prime admiring the peaceful water creatures then said " _I miss you, old friend._ "

McCoy Prime departed the replica following the tour.

Some would say he was emotionally torturing himself.

But to some who knew him best: he was grieving for Jim.

Visiting the museums that involved historical related events with Jim was one of his ways to grieve.

McCoy Prime saw a humpback whale come to the surface blowing out water padding its tail against the water. The doctor looked down in the direction of the water feeling his heart race and his mind went all over the place regarding Spock Prime. He had once admitted to the Vulcan, while the Vulcan was not right with his mind, that he could not stand to lose the Vulcan again on his watch. McCoy Prime half wanted to go after the Vulcan to ensure he was all right and still breathing. However he was prevented so by a strange feeling in his gut. But that again could be the logic at work here. McCoy Prime got half way down then reached his hand up in the direction of a blurry pale-green Caucasian colored hand coming to the surface then he reached out and pulled Spock Prime out as the terrible weather continued.

"Don't do that to me again, pointy eared hobgoblin!" McCoy Prime said.

Spock Prime got up to the top with everyone else.

"One of the whales are communicating with the probe." Spock Prime said.

"And how do you know that?" McCoy Prime asked.

"One of them is upside down and not moving." Spock Prime said.

". . . Whales don't communicate that way." Taylor said.

"Theoretically, it is mimicking the posture of the probe which is quite alien and speaks in whale song." Spock Prime said.

"Wait, you never said that whales are aliens!" Taylor said.

"I did not say that." Spock Prime said.

"Essentially, you did." Sulu said.

"The Commander's right," McCoy Prime said. "You just said whales are aliens even though they orginate from Earth."

"I did?" Spock Prime said. "That is a fascinating assumption."

"Next you are going to say is that humanity originates from Mars." Taylor said.

"But humanity did originate from Mars." Spock Prime said.

The weather started to clear up and the clouds parted ways. The sea calmed down gently lapping against the starship that was frankly sinking slowly but not that fast. They could see a rescue air-shuttle headed their way. Jim would have approved of their mission whole heartedly and how things turned out.

"At least no one died!" Chekov said.

* * *

"So you did this before?" Admiral Chester asked.

"Including stealing a bird of prey." Admiral Marcus said.

"Taking someone out of their time and into our time." Admiral Pike said.

"That we did." McCoy Prime said.

"And we respectivefully request that our names not be in the public report. Please put our counterparts ranks instead of our current ones. It is illogical for everyone to know there is a timeline where Vulcan still exists and technology that is not as advanced as cuurrent day to day machinery are," Spock held his hand up preventing the admirals from starting. "So I request that you share the same decency you share with me to my friend, my colleague, Leonard McCoy."

"Earth owes you more than that." Pike said.

"A lot." Marcus added.

"What about Captain Kirk?" McCoy Prime said.

"Captain Kirk's crew was found alive in their stasis and their starship damaged, the starship will return to space in the next month," Pike said. "Mister Spock," He leaned forward putting his hands on the table. "As you are aware this means we have someone out of time and many people to promote."

"One suggestion." Spock Prime said.

"What is that?" Chester asked.

"Begin Department of Temporal Investigations," Spock Prime said. "Regarding the use of time travel. I have found you did not take my warning seriously last time regarding time travel and have found that Ensign Richard Beck brought back a group of Vulcans, who were documented to have not made it, into the present. It is unwarrented and very risky. The timeline they will return to may or may not be the same. That is why I recommend the Time Temporal Directive as part of this department."

Pike nodded.

"We will take your suggestion but not give your counterparts the promotions unexpectedly for saving the Earth but we can say that due to Lieutenant Commander McCoy's efforts and several others in the time when we had a natural disaster, most of the injuries were treated and lives were saved. Commander Scott and Commander Chekov's quick thinking on constructing a tank. Commander Sulu's brave actions of helping. Lieutenant Staurk and Speller's efforts, in this event. has been recorded. Earth is forever in your debt, twice," He leaned back. "Now tell us, what is it the most you want?"

McCoy Prime nudged Spock Prime's elbow.

Spock Prime looked over toward the doctor with a short lived nod then back to the three men.

" _Enterprise B_ ," McCoy Prime said. "James T. Kirk must not step aboard that ship on her maiden voyage. That is one request I have."

"The only request we have." Spock Prime corrected McCoy Prime.

"But . . . that is . . ." Chester said.

"This is a man's life we are talkin' about!" McCoy Prime said.

"All right, Doctor, Ambassador," Marcus said. "But as Mister Spock said, earlier, that events have been changed. What ever happens on this later version of the _Enterprise_ will not be the same as it had on the one you were on."

"I am sure as hell it will happen," McCoy Prime said. "I studied the essay regardin' the chain of events that made me lose my best friend! It will happen and we are _not_ going to the next Cassandra!"

"We were not there." Spock Prime said.

"Thank you for the consideration and listenin' to our report." McCoy Prime said.

"Mister Spock," Chester said. "Did you ever figure out why everything was so. . . neatly placed? Was there someone else at the antique store while Doctor McCoy was with the owner?"

Our perspective turned toward Spock Prime.

"Negative." Spock Prime lied.

* * *

"Bones!"

McCoy looked over from a padd to see a familiar man with brown hair headed his direction with bright blue eyes. It had been a year since he had seen this man and it seemed as though nothing had changed. He seemed genuinely happy to see the older man. Kirk grabbed McCoy into a well deserved hug.

"How was the 20th century?"

"What are you talkin' about?"

The two men stopped their hug.

"There are reports swarming around regarding your trip."

"I didn't pay no visit to the 20th century, Jim! Damn it,Jim, stop believin' the rumors you hear!"

"But it was a report-OWw, what was that for?"

"You got a onset of Bughi illnesss."

"Bughu?"

"A ilness that originates from going into a environment that is slowly deprivin' you of oxygen then goin' into a pod. Named after the scientist that discovered it."

"Well, if you weren't the one who went back in time then who is everyone talking about?"

They were visibly confused.

"Me." McCoy Prime said.

The two men looked over to see McCoy Prime.

". . . Dad?" McCoy's eyes could have burst letting out a flow of water.

McCoy Prime had a amused look.

"No," McCoy Prime said, shaking his hand. "Rear Admiral, Leonard H McCoy, at your service." He looked over toward Kirk appearing to be flabbergasted at the blue eyes, with a raised eyebrow and a look of disbelief in those eyes. "Why do you have blue eyes?"

"He was born in space." McCoy said, as Kirk gawked at the two with a raised hand that had a index finger pointing at McCoy Prime.

"Figures." McCoy Prime said.

"How did you? . . ." McCoy asked.

"That is a story for another time, doctor." McCoy Prime said.

"OH MY GOD YOU ARE BONES PRIME!" Kirk finally said.

"If you like to refer to me that way, sure." McCoy Prime said.

"What was I like? Was I awesome? Did I get married and have kids?" Kirk asked.

"Jim was the greatest captain there was, and the best one I knew. He was a great example of what a captain should be asides to the homophobic and xenophobic captains out there," McCoy Prime said. "He did have a son . . . but a Klingon killed him when he attempted to save a Vulcan/Romulan scientist." A sad expression came onto his face. "He never married. I guess fallin' for Vulcans and protectin' them with their life goes with the Kirk DNA."

"What do you mean?" The two men asked.

"Spock and Jim were married."

"Oh my god, married to Spock? That is. . . Oh god, you don't know how gross that is."

"He is referrin' to his rule stickler aspect, not just because the Vulcan side."

McCoy Prime smiled.

"Greatest captain? I didn't see that part with the meld with Old Spock."

"Greatest captain."

"I don't see the greatest captain standin' with me."

"He has layers. A lot of them. Ever met Miri?"

"Yes."

"And did the kids get cured?"

"Yes."

"And Edith Keeler?"

There was a sad look in Kirk's eyes.

"Khan."

". . . Khan who?"

There appeared a smile on McCoy Prime's face.

"Roger Korby."

"Met his android. He is dead."

"Gary Seven."

"We met him."

"Charlie X."

"A boy still learnin'."

"Trelane."

McCoy frowned.

"That spoiled brat." McCoy said.

"He was very frustrating." Kirk said.

"And you handled him differently from how my Jim did, otherwise, you are still him. Fine captain. Every universe has their Jim Kirk who saves lives and falls for girls then drops them all in that order if he can have sex with them inbetween the dottin' period. He has yet to save Star Fleet all together,twice, without the help of Spock and I. Because next time, we are not helpin'."

McCoy smiled.

"That sounds a lot like my Jim."

"Hey!"

"It is true."

"Miramanee?"

"She died."

"It seems she was always meant to die being stoned to death."

Kirk had been silent then.

"Doctor!"

McCoy Prime and McCoy turned their heads in the direction of Taylor.

"I love the future!" Taylor caught the older man into a hug. "Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou."

Kirk's eyes boggled.

"Taylor," McCoy Prime said. "There are two people you should meet."

She unwrapped her arms from around his neck and came to his side.

"Captain Kirk," Kirk said. "And this is my friend Leonard McCoy."

"You two look nothing alike," Taylor said. "Mister Spock was right."

"What did I say?" Spock said, randomly popping up into the waiting room.

McCoy Prime stared at the direction of the much younger Vulcan who had an eyebrow raised and . . . He strikingly resembled Spock Prime in his prime.

"The Vulcan is right most of the time," McCoy Prime said, then he looked over toward McCoy. "Good luck with your promotion, doctor."

McCoy Prime went past the Vulcan with a fond but otherwise well placed smirk on his face. He was in a admiral uniform. McCoy Prime turned a corner. Where he could see a woman faintly resembling Nyota Uhura speaking with Scotty who was telling their story. There were other members of the two different crew in this hall waiting for something of the sorts. This was Spaceport. He joined with Spock Prime at the transporter room visibily lighter than he had been in a long time but genuinely happy and relaxed perhaps even relieved. McCoy Prime didn't look so tired anymore to the Vulcan.

"You must be Mister Spock!" Taylor said. "I have heard a lot about you from the Ambassador."

McCoy and Kirk were sharing a long 'what the hell?' look regarding the Rear Admiral's comment.

"Who are you?" Spock came over.

"Gillian Taylor," Taylor said. "Miss Taylor."

"She is from the past." McCoy said.

"Offical patient of the Department of Temporal Investigations," Taylor said. "I can not wait to hear the two of you, Mr Kirk, Mr Spock, saving the galaxy together!"

"That is not likely to happen." Kirk said.

"Very unlikely." Spock added.

"Negatives." McCoy said.

"What is the matter?" Taylor said. "You think because you are border crosses and the other is exploration that the two of you will not gang up for a common purpose?"

"Well, ma'am," Kirk said. "But life doesn't work that way. Everyone goes their seperate ways."

"Not true," Spock said. "Commander Scott has been given a promotion and he prefers to serve on the same ship."

"And what that might be?" Kirk asked.

"Captaincy." Spock said.

"Two captains on one ship?" McCoy said.

"Mr Scott would prefer if we threw out the book." Spock said.

"He loves the Enterprise." Kirk said.

"A crewmen insulted the Enterprise approximately three months, two weeks, four days, three hours, two minutes, and four seconds ago in the presence of Mr Scott," Spock said. "Needless to say, both of them were taken to sick bay and had to attend counsel for a week. Which was logical given their violent fight."

A smile grew on the two men's face.

"Did they mention her about being a old tin can?" Kik asked.

"Affirmative." Spock said.

As if on cue, McCoy and Kirk shared an eye roll.

"Same old Scotty." Kirk said.

Taylor handed a padd to Kirk.

"Here is my comm number," Taylor said. "If you like to chat." She had a pretty smile. "I look forward to seeing you again."

"Where are you going?" Kirk asked.

"In three hundred years or so, science has to go leaps and bounds." Taylor said.

"A science vessel." Kirk said.

"I have a lot of catching up to do. I look forward to correspondence with you, Admira-I meant Captain Kirk!" She left the three men.

"Did she just call you admiral?" McCoy asked, stunned.

"Admiral Kirk," Kirk said. "Man, that makes me sound old."

Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Why would you sound old with the rank of Admiral?"

"Because old people take that rank!"

"I find it highly illogical as Admiral Pike accepted the rank at a young age when he was thirty-two. It is logical to progress on the next rank after a extended period of time."

"So since I am thirty-seven, I should be already Admiral in your perspective?" Kirk asked.

"Affirmative." Spock said.

"And Bones?" Kirk asked.

"I wouldn't want to be captain over my dead body!" McCoy said.

"That answers your question." Spock said.

"Wow, a compliment, I feel butterflies in my stomach." Kirk said.

"I do not understand why humans say they have butterflies in their stomachs when they clearly do not." Spock said.

Kirk laughed.

"Figure of speech, Mr Spock." McCoy said.

"So what are you going to be doing for the next lifetime, Bones?" Kirk asked.

"Deliver a male humpback calf, and if I am lucky, have a damn bottle of bourbon and hope that I don't get killed in space again!" McCoy said, holding up the pad that clearly read 'plans for Humpback whale delivery' with neatly written text and a pen installed into the side.

A wide smile grew on Kirk's face.

"Back into space? Congrats!" Kirk slapped the man's back. "What changed your mind?"

"What is wrong with the one he has now?" Spock asked.

"He meant why I reconsidered my decision," McCoy said. "I realized . . . That I made a mistake. Your father, I was treatin' him-" He shook his hand. "He is fine,captains, and his wife has graciously recovered from the unfortunate air-car accident." Spock eased himself. "I realized . . . If I hadn't set up shop for the injured from the storm they would have died. After this delivery I am bein' assigned to the Grayhorn."

"Okay, picking up babies and giving them homes sure beats out exploring," Two confused glances landed on Kirk. "I got the best job in the world!" He put both hands on his friend's shoulders. "Monitoring Romulan and Klingon activity. I am like the smallest part of the most important part of the alert system. You are the biggest part of the starship chain." He took his hands off their shoulders. "When I go, I rather going with a bang instead of dying alone. I get the inkest of all feelings I will die alone."

"Illogical," Spock said. "You are never alone."

Three camera man came into the room.

"Captain Spock and Commander McCoy," Came one of the camera men. "Can we have your picture?"

"I do not see why not." McCoy said.

In the photograph that is taken, Spock has his hands behind his back and McCoy is right beside them with Kirk looking over toward them from in between getting a replicator with the smallest of all smiles on his face. Though there is something about his eyes that indicate he might not see them for awhile next time holding his hand out for what was apparently a generated cup. He was going to be on shoreleave for awhile. He had a shuttle with his name on it aimed directly to Iowa awaiting repairs for his starship.

 _We see that the image is on a pad screen being viewed by a familiar figure holding a cup and taking a sip wearing a hat as humanoid aliens run past the restaurant of the sorts while he is acting so casual about it. Below the image read "CAPTAIN SPOCK AND COMMANDER MCCOY, STAR FLEET HEROES OF MANY". A smile had grown on the older man's face. He seemed to be somewhere in his sixties. He swiped the screen going to the next page revealing a roll of text explaining how they saved the world._

"Jim, next time we chat, don't let it be after something like this!"

"I can try."

"You were suffocating in our first live chat."

"Gee, I can take care of myself."

"You are not dying on us. In fact I am going to find out who the doctor is of your ship!"

" _Saratoga._ "

"And we are going to have a deal. You make a prerecorded video next time and don't get a potentially deadly disease because of it!"

"Bones, Spock, stop glaring at me like that."

"You concerned me."

"Damn right, did too to me!"

"I can't promise anything."

"THE HELL YOU CAN!"

McCoy left the two.

"I find it logical that the doctor will get himself assigned to your ship."

"Wanna bet?"

"Negative."

"Because you know you are right."

"Affirmative."

"Bones is just scared of losing me."

"I cannot blame him with your deathwish."

"I don't have a deathwish. It is you who has the deathwish."

"I used to have one, but now I don't. That is an outdated statement."

"You get the point, Mr Spock."

"The point is, you are getting older Jim, and you are twenty-five anymore. You cannot bounce back from everything like you did before."

"Maybe I still can. Because I don't believe in-"

"No win scenarios."

Kirk nodded.

"You are not elastic, Jim. You are not expandable. Save yourself when you can."

"Since when did you get all soft?"

"Nyota grew concerned and voiced her concerns to me."

"Just leave me to sticking alive and you worrying about your wife."

Kirk left the Vulcan.

"I will, Jim." Spock said.

* * *

Our scene made way into a bar. A dimly lit bar that featured an array of aliens. One in particular is not an alien but a man with a grip around a goblet of some kind leaned against a chair with graying curly hair. He had a engagement ring below the wedding ring. There was a empty chair from across as there was someone of importance coming. His free hand was tapping on his leg. We see a moving alien figure about six foot four headed in the direction of the man. Some of the aliens here were slurring, and there was some fights going on behind the man who seemed to be relatively and eeriely calm.

The alien, a andorian, sat down into the chair.

"I don't know who you are but you have five minutes to tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now for blowing my cover in a blackmail operation with Ferengi!" His fist slammed on the table.

The hazel eyes looked up in the Romulan's direction.

"Watch what you are saying,Mr Zakani. You do not want your cover blown."

Zakani glared at the man.

"Who the hell are you?"

The man took his free hand out then slid a pad on the table towrad the Andorian.

"All you need is right there."

Zakani took the pad then glanced at it, a scowl grew on his face, and his eyes turned menacing turning in the direction of the man.

"You are that man?"

"Yes."

"I cannot help you."

Zakani stood up only to feel a lingering presence behind him being a certain Klingon, no wait, two Klingons behind him. If his face was Caucasian then it would have turned pale as his body stiffened, the hair on the back of his neck stood up, and his adrenaline started running. He could hear his heart beat against his chest. Beads of sweat started to come down his skin.

"I cannot interfere in your affairs, Mr Zakani, due to the prime directive. Nor can I help you."

The Klingon put one hand on Zakani's shoulder.

"You. . . You bastard!" Zakani shouted.

The man took a sip of the drink as Zakani was towed away.

"I CURSE YOU!" Zakani shouted.

The man lowered the cup bemused.

"I was cursed before I met you, Mr Zakani!" The man replied.

A curious bystander, a Romulan, noticed the commotion. The Romulan came over to the table with a curious glint in his eyes.

"What do you need help with?"

The man looked away from the drink.

"Finding two men," The man said. "My friends." The Romulan read the pad then raised an eyebrow looking in the direction of the man. "Been looking for them for quite a while."

"Who are these men?" The Romulan asked.

"Ambassador Selek and Doctor Larry Horatio McCoy." The man said.

"Larry. The man who helped in a recent refugee medical camp?" The Romulan asked.

"That man." The man said.

"And the Ambassador who visited Romulus for a private 'meeting'?" The Romulan asked.

"That Vulcan." The man said.

"You are a mad man," The Romulan said. "They are so . . . secretive. No one knows where they came from."

The man smiled.

"I do." The man said.

"What?" The Romulan asked.

"I know where they came from." The man said.

"Where?" The Romulan asked.

"Future." The man said.

The Romulan frowned.

" . . . You are kidding." The Romulan said.

"Afraid not as the future is constantly changing and this means the future I knew is no longer possible." The man said.

The man took a sip from the cup.

"And if I should believe you, why have you not found them earlier?" The Romulan asked.

The man lowered the cup.

"Been helping the Klingons with a problem. One that involved a Andorian." The man said.

"That Andorian who was towed out?" The Romulan asked.

"You got it." The man said.

"You have not been here long." The Romulan said.

"I have. . . ." The man said. "Fifteen years, four months, one week, and two days. I have been helping more than the Klingons staying out of Star Fleet's eye. I did not think my friends were in this universe. Thought I was alone." There was a sad flicker in his eyes. "But I am not alone. Got wind of them last year."

"You might want me to find them, tell you where they are, and . . . not tell anyone who you are?" The Romulan asked.

"Prime directive." The man said.

"Why do you use that as a shield?" The Romulan asked.

"Because if you said my name in here, you get a lot of people turning on us and those fights would be aimed at us," The man said. "Now, I do not see the logic in yelling my name out loud and getting killed in the process. Do you see the logic?"

"Maybe you are one of those undercover Star Fleet officers." The Romulan said.

"Maybe I am, and maybe I am not. But why would I be here if I were undercover?" The man asked. "I have been searching for these two men over the past year and so far I have been getting false leads. Dead ends. No one around here wants to give me a straight answer. Now if I could get a location on one of them then perhaps this goose chase can end for me."

"You have been here longer than Larry." The Romulan said.

"How long?" The man asked.

"Fourteen years." The Romulan said.

"Fourteen. . ." The man said, stunned.

"He has been having complications with his health. They went somewhere to fix that problem. His health has been restored to normal or the slightest, rumors say his biological clock was changed by someone up in space," The Romulan pointed toward the ceiling. "Something divine intervened. The Vulcan. . . I heard. . . Has Bendii's syndrome. A mild case of it, or so the rumors say."

The man stood up with hands on the table.

"He has what?" The man asked, quite alarmed.

"Bendii's syndrome." The Romulan said.

"Oh no. I should be there!" The man sat down. "Bones . . . It must be hard on him." He lowered his head down then he looked off into the direction of the Romulan. "When you find Selek or the doctor, I want you to contact me right away, no questions asked, and do not ever comm me again."

"No contact until then?"

"Yes. I can't take any chances of someone getting interested in what will not happen."

"If you are who you claim to be . . . Are you aware that Admiral Kirk missed the voyage of the _Enterprise A_ because of a 'family emergency'?"

"That I am," The man stood up. "I have to go. I have some. . ." He looked over seeing Malth leaned against the doorway, arms folded, with a scowl. "Business to conduct. Classified business."

"Understood." The Romulan said.

The man put a credit on his drink then he put on his jacket, put the drink on the bar counter, and headed out. We can see that Zakani was laughing with some Klingons heading in a different direction. Malth exited the building with the man by his side this time with a 'not a scowl' on his face but concern.

"Are you sure that we were supposed to alarm my friend like that?" Malth asked.

"I didn't say we were enforcing the prime directive," The man said. "I said we were creatively abiding it."

"If I had not known you were not a fool. . ." Malth said.

"I wouldn't be standing here." The man finished.

"But tell me, how did you know that we were intending to discover Genesis?" Malth asked.

"It's a fools errand," The man said. "Self-destructive planet. It had proto-matter. And it exploded on a moon that would fall into the sun. Klingons would have obviously declared Genesis as a war crime, my friend. And you should not be part of a dishonorable mission."

"You have a point there, Terran." Malth said.

"Thank you." The man said.

"You never told me your name." Malth said.

"I am afraid that my real name is not on the table." The man said.

"The Klingon Council knows your name, and everyone I ask, they refuse to tell me!" Malth said, as they walked away from the bar. "They would rather die then tell your name. What kind of favors did you do for them that earned their loyalty?"

"I may have reassured them that Star Fleet means no harm and done some assurance that a treaty would bring peace between them. Honorable peace." The man had a fond smile. "You know the lawyer, Mr Worf, who is a defense attorney?" Malth nodded at the name. "His grandson will bring honor to his house."

"You served with him." Malth said.

"I met his grandson once before I came here. He warned me and wished me good luck on my voyage. Everyone said what my mission was suicidal. Coming back to life is one thing . . . But living it alone without the one you cared about the most? That leaves a certain ache in one's heart." He patted on his chest lightly. "And a void. A hole. In where there had been something before. I couldn't do the trip again after my arrival. Using wormholes to get from place to place has not been refined yet in this time."

"I understand." Malth said.

"Besides," The man said. "I have another classified mission to do. Obligation with the Deltans and the Andorians."

"My friend, you are never going to run out of missions playing the hero." Malth said.

"I am not playing the hero, I am just helping people," The man said. Long as there are people out there who need help I will be there just not . . . exploring. But then again, what my job means I have to go out where some people are scared of. I am going boldly where no man dares to go. Into the danger. Into life or death. I have been doing this for along time . . . I can do it for another ten years then I am retiring. Besides, I have friends who can take care of missions that I rather not do."

"And the Klingon you have been grooming to take your place?" Malth said.

"He has the heart. With the right motivation and the right heart, he will be fine." The man said.

"You are a agent." Malth said.

"I work on my own time. Sometimes just being there I am given the mission. Wherever I go, there is a mission," The man said. "You know that."

"When you retire, the universe will prove you wrong that it is not done with you." Math said.

"It is never done for me, lieutenant." The man remarked as they vanished into a street in a golden red flash.

* * *

"Sppppppppppppppppppppoooooooooooooooooooockk!" McCoy Prime shouted entering a house. "I am home!"

"I am out back." Spock Prime was in the backyard in a rocking chair.

"We have a visitor," McCoy Prime said. "Don't speak, yet, we don't wanna ruin the surprise. Don't we?"

Spock Prime was older, but, he still appeared as though he was one hundred sixty-nine. He had finished watering the plants they had in the backyard. He could feel someone close to him had come. Someone other than McCoy Prime had come. Was he dying? Negative. His heart was beating regulary. Their pet cat died due to a air-car accident a few months ago. McCoy Prime buried the cat in the back yard but not in the garden. She had a little grave stone. Spock Prime, again, adopted a older dog with a gray snout that sat beside his chair. The dog was a German Shepard. His name was Surak.

"I met them when coming back from a medical confrence!" McCoy Prime said.

Surak got up then slowly walked into the house where he barked at first and then it lowered.

"Surak, sit," McCoy Prime said. "Good boy, here is a treat." He looked over toward someone. "Go into the backward with this. As I told you earlier, he does not walk a lot. He just walks. . . like a shuffle, slowly, not as fast as he did twenty years ago. Old age is wearin' down on him, I swear! One of these days he will be wheelchair bound. One hundred eighty-nine. I found out I was a telepathic healer capable of takin' care of old Spock by the younger Spock. I am just keepin' the emotional barrier up for him, it has become easier over the past ten years."

Surak returned to the backyard then he sat down on the pavement and chewed on a toy.

"Now, he may be old," McCoy Prime said. "But trust me, he is still able to flip someone over and nerve pinch them or break anythin' without a moments hesitation. He is still Spock. His logic. . . Has been compromised lately but he is hangin' on. Some days I think he is ready to let go and join everyone else. When he goes. . . I won't have lon'. I know I won't. I would die of a broken heart to see him die before my eyes, again. Everyone is goin' to drop like flies in a couple decades after we die. At least we can die before they draw their last breath." There is a pause. "He retired being an Ambassador. His younger self will become an Ambassador in a three years of New Vulcan. Sarek can handle takin' the Ambassador duties while his son is ill. He told me so."

Surak looked up in the direction of the doorway.

"Just go to him," McCoy Prime urged someone out. "You are exactly what he needs. He needs you."

Spock Prime rested his eyes. Minutes later he could feel someone's warm hand on the side of his face. He could feel someone's mind touch his specifically in the psi-touch points. _"I am here, T'hy'la."_ He could feel a warm bond reestablish itself. Spock Prime opened his eyes to a aged, familiar face that had a pair of glasses. Spock Prime could see a familiar pair of haze eyes staring back at him full of loss, hope, compassion, joy, and kindness. A name was tied to this face. He remembered a name, it was a nickname, the older Vulcan had believed. Wasn't it James? No, wait, it was Jim. The first word fell out like a syllable, " _Jim_." in recognition.

McCoy Prime was at the doorway watching this.

"Spock," Jim said, as a lone tear fell down his cheek. "Is that you?"

Somehow, Jim knew that answer was a yes.

 **The End**.


End file.
